Wings
by oRpheusB20
Summary: After finding a locked box in an otherwise empty underground tunnel, Raphael opens it without a thought. Not. Smart. Now one of his friends lacks a soul and he's been tasked with cleaning up the mess he's made. At least he'll get to annoy his partner while he's at it. (Warning: Very OOC characters. They're effectively their own people by now. That just adds to the fun, though.)
1. Raphael Sure Is 'Smart'

**This was floating around in my mind for somewhere around a week. So, because I adore this series and had yet to make a story for this lovely game (that's worth posting anyway) I decided to write it down and play the game again.**

 **It's probably stupid of me to start another project with something like 5 others in progress, but I want to give this a shot anyway.**

 **Tell me how you guys like it! Every little bit helps. Also, errors. It doesn't matter how small, PLEASE tell me if I make an error, or if something doesn't make any sense. PLEASE.**

 **Keep in mind that this will take some cues from Kid Icarus, and probably some other series. Don't worry, you don't have to know anything about the series. I won't just rip something from there and expect you to know what I'm talking about. But I will make mention of it, if anything so you can look it up and better understand what I'm talking about.**

 **With out of the way, It's Showtime! (I've always kinda wanted to say that!)**

* * *

Rhythm Thief: Wings

"How did you ever convince me to join you on this ridiculous adventure?"

"I don't know."

"I think you just kind of followed with us. Something about keeping us from doing anything stupid."

"Well, I regret it now."

The three teenagers were walking down dark underground portion of the city that had been long since forgotten about. Of course, with enough research and a lot of luck, Raphael had managed to locate it. He proposed the idea of exploring it to Marie, who happily agreed. Along the way, they ran into Charlie, who strangely showed more interest in where they were going than attempting an arrest. Raphael hoped it was because she was just giving up, but he had a feeling that wasn't true.

And so currently, they were wandering down a dark corridor with only a flashlight to act as their guide.

Marie shivered. "It's cold down here."

"Yeah , that'll happen to an underground tunnel after being abandoned for couple hundred years," Charlie replied. "The fact that this whole place hasn't caved in is amazing."

"It is a little shocking that it hasn't collapsed and brought a section of the city with it, huh?" Raphael commented. "It feels way to deserted though. There's no sign that life ever existed here. Other than the fact that it's clearly man-made, of course."

As if to prove a point, he swept the flashlight's beam over empty space.

"Who built this place, anyway?" Marie asked.

"I have no idea," Raphael replied. "I happened to stumble upon it through a bunch of ancient records, but nothing about who built it."

"But why would they just abandon it?" Charlie asked, crossing her arms. "I know it's desolate, but surely there's something of interest still here."

"And that, my dear, is why we're here," Raphael told her.

"Dear?" She asked.

Raphael didn't respond, instead turning his attention back to looking for things of interest. Turning down a small passage, he seemed to brighten. "Look what I found!"

The two females looked around Raphael, and found a sign hanging from the door. Most of it was faded with age and the rest was gibberish.

"What?" Charlie asked. "I can't read that."

"Neither can I," Raphael admitted. "But there's got to be something down there."

"I don't know. I get the oddest sense that whatever is down there won't be a good thing," Marie said timidly.

"I think you're getting that feeling because of the skeleton on the floor there," Charlie pointed to said pile of bones. "But I agree. I don't think we should go down there."

"We'll be fine!" Raphael reassured them, happily grabbing Marie's hand and walking past the sign. After a moment, Charlie followed, albeit hesitantly.

Along the way, they encountered more skeletons and more signs, making the two females jumpy. After a while, Raphael started to joke about what the signs could be saying. "Turn back!" He whispered creepily in a high voice that made him sound like a little girl. He got the same annoyed expression from the girls for his trouble. Seeing another sign, he changed his voice's pitch again so it was similar to an old man's. "No seriously! Go away, or you'll die!" He said, lingering for a while on 'die.'

"While your ability to change your pitch could be considered impressive, it's not funny," Charlie told him. "If you don't stop it, I'll knock you into next week!"

Raphael chuckled. "Where's the fun in walking down a spooky corridor without making spooky noises though?" He continued to laugh until he looked back at Marie, who was giving him her best death glare. "Fine, fine, I'll stop."

Marie dropped the glare and smiled at him in appreciation.

"Wow, you got the nicest person in the city to glare at you. Good job," Charlie commented.

"Oh, shush," Raphael groaned.

"We're here. I think," Marie informed them.

The room they had arrived in was just as blank as everywhere else at first glance, but upon closer inspections, there appeared to be signs that a struggle took place, with various scratches on the walls, and what may have been blood stains as well (with it being probably more than 100 years old, it was difficult to tell, so they just assumed).

The only other thing of interest was an old chest in the back. Various locks criss-crossed it, but they were just as old, if not more, than the chest, and were falling apart.

"It's really creepy here. I really don't want to be here," Marie said.

"Same," Charlie agreed. "I feel those signs you made fun of back there were actually saying that we should stay away."

"You guys are no fun, you know that?" Raphael asked rhetorically. "Your danger senses are overactive."

"I think you just lack a danger sense altogether," Charlie muttered.

The two girls watched Raphael approach the chest. He easily removed the worn locks and lifted the lid an inch or so. He peeked through the crack and found nothing immediately dangerous, so he threw the lid up, reaching into the chest and bringing out the item inside. The whole process looked almost like he was attempting to imitate the Legend of Zelda.

After a moment of just standing there with the object, he turned and showed it to the girls, returning to them, a confused expression on his face.

"Interesting," Marie muttered. " I think."

"Where's the point of the chest if there's just going to be a smaller one inside it?" Charlie asked.

Indeed, inside of the chest had been a second, much smaller one, this one being only a little bigger than both of Raphael's hands.

"This little thing does raise that question, huh?" Raphael commented. "If they wanted to hide it, you would except them to put it in a hole and then cover it, rather than put it in a chest. Locks don't last forever, after all."

"Alright, so we've found out what was in that chest. Can we leave now?" Charlie requested.

"Nothing's keeping you here. Anyway, we still need to know what's in this chest."

Marie and Charlie exchanged worried glances. Regardless, they were curious and peeked over his shoulders and he slowly opened the lid.

As soon as he cracked it open, however, a dark force jumped out of it.

With his fast reflexes, Raphael dropped the box and jumped away. His companions weren't so lucky, however. The black force, or, forces, as Raphael noticed just about every particle seemed to contain a different mind, just about swallowed them up as they ran free. None of them waited for a second, and phased through the ceiling, away from the dark room.

While he was concerned about the forces that escaped from the box, his first concern was naturally his friends. Marie was on the ground, either unconscious or dead. Hopefully not the latter. Charlie was still standing, but wasn't moving.

Moving first to Marie, he checked to see if she was still alive. To his horror, he couldn't find a pulse, or anything that might indicate life.

"Oh, I am so dead for this," he muttered. Seeing a shift out of the corner of his eye, he looked over to find Charlie moving over to him. "Good to know you're still alive, at least."

To his shock, she didn't reply. In fact, she, rather clumsily, attempted to hit him. He easily dodged the attack. "What the hell?!" He yelled. It was then that he got a good look at her eyes, which had been changed it a blood-red color. "What the hell?" He repeated, this time more confused than annoyed.

She attempted another attack, which was dodged as well. Again and again she attacked, her movements getting faster and more fluid each time. Raphael didn't retaliate. He knew something wasn't right, and didn't want to hurt her. The worst he did was trip her.

This went on for probably five minutes. Hearing hurried footsteps coming towards the room, Raphael turned his attention there. Surprisingly, the ones who appeared were Elisabeth and Alfred.

The first thing she did upon seeing his situation was sigh. "You just love getting yourself in situations like this, don't you?" She asked.

"No, I do not!" Raphael yelled. "Now, since you seem to know what's going on, help!"

Elisabeth rolled her eyes, but complied. "In that box you opened, there should be a pendant. Grab it."

Raphael nodded and ran to the box, hastily shoving his hand inside and pulling out the first thing that his hand latched onto. It was... a note. Upon realizing his mistake, he dropped it and reached in again. This time, he pulled out a necklace with a grey lifeless jewel. He held it up. "This?"

Elisabeth nodded. "Yes, good." Turning to her bodyguard, she said, "Distract the demon for us, Alfred." Alfred nodded and jumped into action.

Running over to the Duchess, Raphael asked, "Alright, what now?"

"Put it on and focus energy into it," she answered.

Raphael nodded and slipped the necklace on. "Question, how do you focus your energy into a necklace?" He asked.

"I don't know how to describe it. You've done it, though, with the Bracelet of Tiamat."

"But that was on accident!" Raphael yelled.

"Yes, but you still did it, and you saved the world with that simple action. And now you have to do it again."

Raphael nodded and tried to recall how he did it with the bracelet. He focused his energy. And then he heard a voice. "You who dared to open the box and awaken the demons inside... You're a dumbass."

Raphael damn near fell over in surprise. "I think it just called me a dumbass."

Elisabeth couldn't help but laugh. "It's correct."

The voice spoke again. "Because of your stupidity, you have released demons upon the world, and are now tasked with hunting them down. With your blood, form a contract."

"How cliche," Raphael commented. "Blood contract?"

"Just do it," Elisabeth told him. "That way you can't just walk away from the mess you've made."

Raphael shrugged and bit his thumb hard enough to make it bleed. He dripped the blood onto the pendant, which seemed to soak it up. The lifeless jewel changed color to a beautiful red.

"No running away now," the voice told him.

Suddenly, he was engulfed in light. It faded away just a second later, but when he looked at himself, he found he had armor on, its color monochromatic red that alternated at various sections. The jewel was integrated into the armor as a part of the chest plate. The helmet was a bit stifling, covering his whole head and only leaving his eyes uncovered. Despite how bulky it looked, the armor seemed to weigh nothing. He got the feeling of having a new set of limbs on his back, so he looked behind him to find that he now had wings.

"Ok, the wings are sweet, but how does this help me?" He asked.

"Because you are nigh immortal in this form," Elisabeth answered. "Your strength and stamina have been increased to the point whereas it's god-like in comparison to the average human. Your only limit in this form is how much energy you have. You use it up with attacks and various actions like flying."

"So basically this is a poorly made RPG?" Raphael asked.

"That's one way of looking at it," Elisabeth shrugged. "Now, we need to get this demon out of your friend. Form a ball of energy and launch it at her."

Raphael complied and focused his energy into his palm. It glowed a brilliant white color upon becoming a physical object.

"Now shoot it," Elisabeth commanded.

"I can shoot it?" Raphael asked, confused.

"Yes, you can. Just use a little energy to force it away from your palm."

Raphael nodded and did so. His aim was off, though, and it nearly hit Alfred, who was still attempting to distract the demon for them.

Upon seeing the ball of energy, the demon turned to glare at Raphael. It rushed forward to attack him. Thinking fast, he formed another energy ball and shoved it into his friend's body when it was in range.

The demon let out a shriek, the light paining it. It was slowly, and seemingly painfully, ripped from the body it had been inhabiting. It flopped a couple feet away, initially just a ball of darkness, but slowly grew bigger until it was a misshapen sphere three times a normal human's height with legs and an eye. It stood and roared in annoyance and pain before charging at the armor-clad boy.

Charlie, the demon possessing her gone, nearly fell over, but Raphael caught her and dodged the demon's attack. He set her down by the Duchess.

"Alright, so the demon's out, what now?" He asked.

"Focus on a weapon! I'm sure a sword would be most your style. Just focus on it being deadly for now. We can work on the specifics later."

Raphael nodded and focused. Nearly instantly, he was holding a metal stick. "What's this?" He asked, looking at it in confusion.

"It's a hilt. Pour energy into it to make a sword. The amount you put into it will determine the size."

"Why do you know so much about this?" Raphael asked as he created the blade. his question was left unanswered.

Apparently, he put to much energy into the act, and the blade was about as long as he was. It was also very thin, about as thick as a needle, really.

Wielding it with two hands, he ran forward and stabbed the demon. It shrieked and swiped at him. He parried the blow (which was very difficult with the thickness of his blade) and sliced off the creature's hand.

"Seal it in the pendant!" Elisabeth commanded.

Raphael nodded and looked down at it, grabbing the jewel and removing it from the armor. He held it up to the monster and watched as the jewel did the rest of the work, sucking up the creature.

The crystal, the demon now sealed inside, darkened slightly.

Raphael looked up at Elisabeth. "Now what?" He asked.

"Retrieve the rest of the contents from the box and close it. Put it inside the chest and close that as well." Raphael did so, finding two other necklaces were inside the box. When both chests were closed, she said, "Alright, now hold your jewel in front of the chest." Raphael did so, and the demon was sucked back into the box. "And that is Demon Sealing 101. I hope you enjoyed your lesson," she joked.

Raphael rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. "What is going on?" He asked. Suddenly, his helmet retracted from his face, making him jump. "What the hell?"

"Yeah, your helmet with remove itself when no danger is present," Elisabeth said. "Now then, why didn't you heed the sign's warnings?"

"I can't read them," Raphael answered with a shrug.

Elisabeth seemed shocked. "You mean that you can see the corridor, open both boxes, and still not be able to read them?! You couldn't even assume what was said?"

"I assumed they were saying 'Go away or die' but that's just a guess. And what's this about seeing the corridor?"

"They said 'Demons down here. Don't open the box!' And very few people can come down this way."

"You have some serious explaining to do," Raphael groaned.

"As do you," Elisabeth replied. "Now then, about my daughter..." She glanced at the body in the middle of the room.

Raphael, nervous, said, "Yeah, about that... I think she died."

Elisabeth glanced at her, seemingly unmoved for the most part. "No, she's alive. Just missing a soul."

"But she lacks a pulse," Raphael pointed out.

"Her body's just stuck in a hibernation-like state. When her soul is returned, it will be like nothing happened."

"Well, that's a relief. I thought she was dead."

"If she was, I would have strangled you a long time ago," Elisabeth told him nonchalantly. "Now, let's return to my mansion. This place is not the most suitable for a chat." Raphael nodded and looked down at his armor, wondering how he could take it off. Elizabeth understood what he wanted and instructed him on taking it off while Alfred retrieved Marie. When he was back in his normal get-up, he picked up Charlie and followed the Duchess and her bodyguard out of the area.

* * *

 **Alright, because I'm bored, let me tell you of my original ideas for this chapter!**

 _ **The first idea that I had included a god that had Elisabeth's role in the story, and would reside in an otherworldly place that I always imagined as a mix of the inside of the Moon from MM and the Ghostly Ether from TP (both Legend of Zelda games for those who don't know).**_

 _ **Eventually, another idea came to mind, which only lasted a small amount of time before I returned to the god idea. It was that a spirit was sealed alongside the demons, and it helped them, residing in the pendants and giving advice from there.**_

 _ **In both of these versions, Elisabeth was in the story to pretty much act as an RPG nurse, and lacked a lot of plot relevance.**_

 _ **Another thing that was common in both those ideas was that Marie's soul wasn't stolen and Charlie wasn't possessed for the first fight.**_

 _ **I ended up settling with the Elisabeth idea midway through writing the intro because I thought it fit or something. Marie's missing soul was so that way I wouldn't have to deal with writing three characters at once, which at times can be a bit of a pain, and could have an excuse to focus for a while on the interactions of Raphael and Charlie, which was pretty lack-luster in the game.**_


	2. Oh, The Joy!

**'Ello, there!**

 **Here is the second of who knows how many chapters this story will have.**

 **For this chapter, the focus is switched to Charlie, because I can.**

 **By the way, 'tant pis' means 'To bad' in french, which if used in a mocking tone, of course, will be mocking.**

 **Last chapter, I was spelling Elisabeth wrong, with a z. It's been fixed now, but geez. The sad thing is that even the game managed to do it as well.**

 **Thank you to the two people that reviewed, and it's really nice to see some favorite and follow the story as well.**

 **By the way, I think I need to rename this story. What should it be called?**

* * *

Wings 2

When Charlie woke up, she found she had a splitting headache. With a groan, she slowly sat up, trying to remember what happened. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite grasp anything beyond walking out the door in the morning. It was then that she bothered to realize that she wasn't at home, nor any of her friend's houses.

Hearing a sound to her right, she turned her head. In through the door located there popped a head with bright red hair and a blue fedora with a red stripe. His hazel eyes stared at her for a moment, while she stared back.

"You're finally awake," he stated.

"Yeah," Charlie responded, not sure what else to say. "What the hell happened?"

"Demons and magic. Or was it energy?" He answered simply, walking up to her. In his hand, he held a simple, grey, lifeless pendant. Around his neck hung a similar one, only a bright red color.

"That answers nothing," Charlie told him, crossing her arms.

"I'll tell you the whole story, if you just hold out your hand," Raphael said.

Though she was confused, she held out his hand to him. Before she could even blink, Raphael pulled out a pocket knife and created a small incision, wiping the blood flowing from the new wound onto the lifeless pendant.

"There we go," he said, throwing the bloodied object onto her lap.

"What the hell as that for?!" Charlie yelled, delicately placing her finger in her mouth to keep the blood from getting everywhere.

"Now you're stuck with me," Raphael informed her.

"What?" Charlie questioned. Raphael pointed to the pendant in her lap. Looking down, she saw that the blood was being absorbed into the jewel, and it was turning a golden color. A voice spoke to her.

"It appears that your friend has forced you into a contract. Tant pis," it said mockingly.

"And what's the supposed to mean?!" Charlie yelled.

"Your dumbass friend has opened a box of demons and now has to collect them all up again. He's chosen you to accompany him."

Charlie's lips moved upward in a smile when the pendant called him a dumbass. It quickly fell, though. "But why me? I don't want to be a part of this!"

"Sorry, but Marie's missing a soul, and I don't want to drag her into his anyway. So I chose you," Raphael explained.

"Marie's soul is missing?" Charlie asked, to which Raphael nodded. "Ok, you owe me an explanation."

"That I do," Raphael nodded, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Walking out the door in the morning."

"Oh," Raphael muttered. "Alright then." He took a deep breath and then retold all of what happened in the underground tunnel. Throughout the story, bits and pieces of Charlie's memories returned to her up until the second box was opened, after which there were no more memories to be retrieved.

After a moment of thought, she slapped him, yelling, "You idiot, we told you something wasn't right! Now look at what you've done!"

Raphael sighed. "I know, I fucked up. Elisabeth's already scolded me enough. Was the slap really needed?"

"Of course it was! You deserve a thousand times worse! You released demons onto the world!"

"Actually Elisabeth has some sort of mythical power that allows her to keep the demons in the city."

"How fucking convenient," Charlie muttered, rolling her eyes.

"I know, right?" Raphael shrugged. "So anyway, here's the story Elisabeth just told me a couple minutes ago. A couple hundred, thousand, some large number of years ago, a couple 2,3 humans managed to get here and built some underground tunnels to live in, which were amazingly expansive, considering how many of them there were. Those were what we explored. In those times, demons roamed the land. Those people took it upon themselves to seal them away. Any creature except those humans that encountered the demons were possessed."

"Why did the demons never possess the humans, though? Wouldn't they learn that they were being locked away because of them and try to destroy them?" Charlie asked.

"That's where things get interesting," Raphael told her. "You see, those people had mastered their inner darkness and because of it, couldn't be taken over. They could also use that darkness as a weapon, and defeated their enemies with it."

"That sounds like something straight out of an oddly morbid fairy tale," Charlie commented.

Raphael laughed. "I know, right? I prefer to think of this all as a poorly put together RPG. Anyway, they roamed the land and sealed the demons inside a box, which they then placed inside of a chest covered in runes to help prevent the creatures' escape. As yet another precautionary, they put a magic spell over the corridor the demon box was down. If you could see the corridor for whatever reason, then the signs down there will also change to your language so you would know that going down there would be stupid."

"Well, clearly that part of their spell failed," Charlie muttered. "What was up with the skeletons, though? Those don't make any sense."

"Also a part of their spell. It was meant to strike fear into the hearts of anyone that could see the area," Raphael said. "Anyway, Elisabeth is, _unbelievably_ , a descendent of one of those people. Meaning Marie is a royal French, Babylonian, and also part demon hunter. What are the odds, right?"

"Probably one in infinity," Charlie muttered.

"More than likely, that's correct. So, because of this unique jumbled batch of bloodlines, Elisabeth just so happens to know what's going on here and this will help us in every way she can. Our first goal is to retrieve Marie's soul.

"Apparently the demons are bitter as fuck about their imprisonment, imagine that, and want to rip her soul to shreds and feast upon what's left in the end. Fortunately, they're constantly fighting themselves over her. So she'll probably survive long enough for us to find her, with any particular luck."

"Where would they take a soul, though?" Charlie asked.

Raphael shrugged. "I have no clue. Elisabeth's working on that now. So, while she's doing that, come on, you need to learn what your new job entails."

Before Charlie could say anything in protest, he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of bed. He pulled her all the way to the expansive backyard, where Fondue had been frolicking all day since Raphael and Marie left to explore.

Releasing her and spinning around to face her, Raphael held up his pendant. "Focus your energy into your pendant," he told her.

"And how do I do that?" She asked.

Raphael laughed and attempted to explain, only to fail miserably because it couldn't be describe. Charlie was left to figure it out through trial and error, but managed to do it in just 10 minutes.

Upon managing it and being engulfed in golden armor, she jumped back in shock and nearly screamed.

Raphael snickered at her reaction. "Don't worry. It's armor, it won't eat you."

Now mad, evidenced from the tense shoulders and flared wings, Charlie moved to hit him over the head. Scared, Raphael waved his hands in a frightened manner and said, "Don't hit me! Your strength is monstrous right now! You'd bash my skull in!"

Charlie stopped and relaxed. "Huh. Neat. Ok, I won't hurt you, on purpose anyway. What now?"

"Now, you need a weapon," Raphael told her. He summoned his, sending energy into it to make the blade. Charlie studied it.

"Your blade's as thick as a toothpick," she pointed out.

"Hey, I just got this today, do you really expect me to have mastered it?"

"Yeah, kinda."

"Ok, I know I'm unbelievable," he flipped his hair, even though it was too short to do so, in a 'I'm perfect' manner, "but I'm not that unbelievable."

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just, what am I doing?"

"Well, let's first think about what weapon you should have. I was chatting with Elisabeth, and she informed me that long-ranged shots will cost a lot of energy over time, which can be deadly in a fight. Judging from your fighting style when Napoleon was trying to kill us all, I'm assuming that you would prefer taking the enemy out from a distance."

"That would be preferable. So, if I want to have long-ranged capabilities, I need to use it sparingly and have short-ranged abilities too," Charlie realized. "So unless I want to sharpen a bow to the point where it's part blade, I'm going to have to think outside the box."

Raphael nodded. "Correct. I bet you could take a short ranged weapon and find a way to make it fire like it's a gun. These are just energy weapons, after all. They're a lot more flexible."

Charlie nodded. "Right. And while I'm thinking that up, maybe you should fix your toothpick of a blade."

Raphael looked down at it. "Yeah, that would be good."

* * *

Half an hour later, while looking up some unconventional weapons on a provided laptop, Charlie stumbled upon an interesting one that just might work. She called over Raphael, who had managed to upgrade his toothpick to a stick. He glanced at the weapon on the screen and raised an eyebrow.

"Worth a shot, I guess," he said with a shrug. "I don't see how you could get any long-ranged capabilities from it, but whatever."

"Trust me. I thought about that," Charlie told him.

Charlie set aside the laptop and stood. With Raphael's instruction, she summoned the weapon's base, which was basically just a pair of fingerless gloves. Next, she created four beams of energy, two for each hand, protruding from the knuckles.

The two inspected the weapons. "It's... kinda short," Raphael commented.

"I know that," Charlie said. She pointed the weapon on her right hand to the sky. "However, if I'm correct, then..." One of the beams shot from it like a rocket, disappearing into the sky in a matter of seconds. The recoil from the shot knocked her off her feet. Raphael stared at the sky where the beam disappeared, and then looked back down at his friend.

"How'd you figure that out?" He asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.

Charlie slowly stood back up. "Well, you mentioned that you fired off a ball of energy at me when I was possessed. You said you shot it by forcing it away with some more energy, so I figured I could apply the same idea to a weapon like this. It's probably pretty costly, but it's the only way I can see having both short and long ranged abilities without having a bow and smacking nearby enemies over the head with it."

Raphael chuckled. "Huh, neat. So you think that it'll work for you?"

Charlie shrugged. "Only one way to find out."

Raphael nodded. "True, but we probably shouldn't go looking for fight. I'm sure you're tired after getting possessed, and then having that demon forcibly expelled from your body. I'm rather shocked that you haven't complained that you're tired yet."

"Now that you mention it, I'm beat."

"Then you should probably get some rest," Elisabeth advised, popping up out of nowhere.

"When did you come out here?" Raphael asked, startled at her sudden appearance.

"I walked out here five minutes ago," the duchess informed them, raising an eyebrow. "How did you not notice?"

"Well, for one, you didn't say a word or make a noise to indicate that you were here," Charlie told her.

"And you weren't what we were focusing on, so we didn't pay any attention to you," Raphael added.

Elisabeth shook her head. "That will never do. You must be on the lookout for the demons at all times. The vast majority that aren't competing for Marie's soul have hidden away in humans, going about their host's days for them, albeit with a much ruder personality. You won't find them like that."

"Why aren't they all trying to get Marie's soul?" Raphael asked.

"They're lesser demons, they couldn't stand up to the big ones in a fight. So they just back off. They take control of humans, feeding off their darkness and, for some reason, attempt to blend into the society. Except for a select few, like a water demon, which nearly drowns its host because of its need for water, and is thus inside all day chugging water unless it's raining."

"Ok, I know you're a descendent of the people that sealed these creatures away, but why do you know all this?" Charlie asked.

"Because they recorded the information and passed it down to their children, who passed it onto their children, and so on and so forth, with stories about their ancestor's bravery."

"Ok then, anyway, we must be on the lookout for demons at all times, or something...?" Charlie asked, trying to get back on topic.

"Oh, right. You must be on the lookout because there are only subtle changes when a demon takes over. Of course, the person will have the demon's personality. On rare occasions, the demon is actually not all that bad in terms of personality. Other times, they're downright nasty. The other change that takes place is their eyes turn a demonic red. If they can get with the times fast enough, the demons might think to use eye contacts to get rid of that issue. Try to take out as many as you can before that happens."

"Anything else?" Charlie asked.

"Nope. You can leave now. Tomorrow morning, report here as soon as possible, after 6 o'clock, though, don't come 4 at in the morning." She looked pointedly at Raphael as though he had done it before. Considering how much time he spends with Marie, that wouldn't be a shock if he had.

Raphael rolled his eyes. "But bugging you early in the morning is half the fun!" He joked.

"Do that, and I will have Alfred snap your neck," Elisabeth threatened.

"Well, here's someone who likes their beauty sleep," Raphael chuckled. "Come on, Charlie, let's get out of her hair."

Charlie looked down at her armor, and then looked to Raphael, who still wore his. "What are we supposed to do about this?" She asked.

A look of realization spread onto Raphael's face. "Oh, right." He proceeded to show her how to remove the armor and wings.

When the metal was gone, Charlie rolled her shoulders, a look of discomfort on her face. "I feel like I'm missing something."

"What, your sanity?" Raphael joked. In retaliation, Charlie swiftly kicked him in the shin, causing him to hop around on one foot.

"That feeling might be caused by the fact that your wings are no longer there," Elisabeth told her.

"Wings?" She asked, having not noticed they were there to begin with.

"You had a new set of limbs. How do you fail to notice that?" Raphael asked.

"Some people adjust to this role easier, and will fail to notice the wings, though another would find them rather jarring and unsettling. Those people, supposedly, will have an easier time learning to fly. According to the ancient books, anyway. Of course, this comes at a disadvantage. Whereas Raphael finds it odd to have wings, you find it almost painful to not have them."

"Joy. Is there any way to fix that?" Charlie asked.

"Not according to the books. They say the best solution is to just let them out any chance you have and to suck it up when you can't," Elisabeth answered.

"But isn't the armor and wings a package deal?" Raphael asked. "They've only appeared so far together."

"You just require some control over your abilities," Elisabeth answered.

"And how long do you figure that'll take?" Charlie asked, always the impatient type.

"Well, considering your current level of control, I'm guessing you could pick it up in a couple days."

"Sweet. See you tomorrow, then," with those lovely parting words, the two teens left the area.

* * *

 **A bit of a lame ending, but I couldn't think of anything else.**

 **And please, tell me a better name for this story, or if I should just leave it.**

 **Also, quick thing to note, Charlie's weapons are based around Kid Icarus's Beam Claws. I love those things. They murder everything except on multiplayer, but that's to be expected because I'm not up against AI, rather people that actually know how to play. (I'm not that bad, but I can't even beat the second level on 9.0) Still, I have very few issues when using them. They're fast, and their firing rate and range is practically broken. I hardly notice the lack of damage they supposedly have.**


	3. Their First Victim

**Well, this was a fucking monster. Seriously, epp. I get rid of two major projects and move this story to a more convenient place (my laptop) and it still took all of forever to make. I'm sorry, I really am. I got about half of it done before I suddenly lost interest or something and I forgot about it. Hell, the only reason I didn't drop it with my two LoZ stories was because this series needs more love. That's the only way we could ever hope to get a sequel, right?**

 **By the way, to averyshortreview, thanks for telling me the name's fine. I still think it sounds odd, but what other name is there beside 'MURDER THE DEMONS!'**

* * *

Chapter 3

Over the course of the week after releasing the demons, Raphael and Charlie trained with their powers at the duchess's manor at every opportunity. The two improved immensely in their skills. While Raphael had issues flying above the roof of the manor, he had learned to wield his sword with significantly more ease than when he first used it, and it actually had a proper width. As almost an exact contrast, Charlie still had some issues with having to get up close to her enemy, but was an unbelievable flier, commonly almost doing an Icarus and flying to the point where it was probably hazardous to her health. Not that she cared. True flight like that of the birds was amazing to her.

During that week, they were told very strictly to avoid intentionally picking a fight with any demons, rather, they were to send a message to one of Elisabeth's servants, who was keeping a record of the known possessed people, should they see anyone exhibiting signs of possession.

Unfortunately, there were a lot more lesser demons that weren't constantly fighting over Marie's soul than even Elisabeth expected. There were very few people wandering about the city after just the first day that didn't have creepy red eyes. Even some animals had them. It was rather unnerving. The two teens, upon their second meeting, traded phone numbers for the sole reason of wanting know they could contact someone they knew for a fact was human.

Luckily, or perhaps not depending on how you looked at it, word quickly spread about contacts. In just two days, the number of red eyed people dropped drastically. Anyone that wasn't possessed or privy to the invasion was left to guess that it was simply a fad that only lasted about a day before most sane people realized it looked odd.

Also rather unfortunate was the fact that a good chunk of the two teens' friends were possessed. Despite the fact that most of the demons tried to fit in so much to the point where they dived into their hosts' memories to make conversations less awkward, and to seem more convincing to the few remaining non-demons, it was still rather unnerving to know that you were talking to a demon that had possessed your best friend against their will. Not to mention that, true to Elisabeth's word, they were significantly ruder than their hosts.

Back on the brighter side of things, though, despite the bad personality they exhibited, the demons, almost all of whom had restless energy to burn, (and had to figure out as much about the human race's changed culture, since the last time they glanced at it, it was much different) actually spent their time doing work or studying, depending in if they were in school or not, and people were bound to wake up after being freed to find they had inexplicably gotten a raise or better grades.

Anyway, back to the (mostly forgotten) story, it was a week after the demons were released. Raphael and Charlie sparred in the duchess's backyard, clad in their armor.

"So, think you two are up for your first co-op fight?" Elisabeth asked as she watched the two fight.

The teens paused in their attacks to look over at the duchess. They relaxed in their stances and their helmets retracted.

"Ok, again, you've taken this game thing too far," Raphael commented. Indeed, ever since the two had noted that it seemed too much like a real life game, Elisabeth had taken to referring to it as such. Whether she was doing so intentionally or not just to irk them was up for debate, as she almost didn't seem to notice how they had quickly gotten tired of her jokes. For the most part, they tolerated it because they were rare and also because they suspected that she rarely got to let loose in any way, and because Marie was now gone, she was using them to get out all of her unprofessional behavior. How she survived without Marie for 16-17 something years was a mystery.

"Yes, I know I have," she admitted with a small shrug. "Anyway, who do you want to free first?"

"Father," Charlie said instantly.

"Oh right, he got possessed," Raphael laughed.

Rather unfortunately, it was true. The inspector had indeed been taken over by a rather odd demon. He had figured out about the eye color changing contacts so early that if it wasn't for the personality change, they wouldn't have realized anything had happened.

Despite being as much of a workaholic as its host, the demon was either really smart, or really lucky. It plowed through the inspector's work with apparent ease, so much so that almost every day for the past week he had returned home at the time he was supposed to be home according to his work schedule. Instead of having an incredibly rude personality, though it did have its snarky moments, it, at least around Charlie, seemed to be making an honest effort to right the wrongs that its host had done.

At first it was simply having dinner together and having a pleasant conversation, which had been a nice change of pace, though it had made her raise an eyebrow. Three days in, though, was when the true red flags started popping up, even if it would seem a bit weird to those who didn't know of the two's tense relationship. Up until that point, the demon had been sure to keep a fatherly air about him, though still somewhat distant to avoid suspicion, which had worked quite well. That day, though, when she had muttered that she was going to bed, the demon got up out of its seemingly comfortable, though somewhat odd looking, position situated in front of the TV to go give her a hug and kiss. This severely alarmed her, and she sped off to her room to silently freak out over a series of text messages alongside Raphael. At first he told her that she was overreacting to an extreme degree, but then she relayed all of the changes that had taken place during the week. This successfully convinced him.

Since then, Charlie had made a point to remain out as long as she could to avoid the demon and ensure that when she got back there was an angry parent-demon waiting. She had never liked getting scolded, as with most sane people, but it was the closest she could get to the relationship with her father that she was used to. She had been eagerly awaiting the point whereas Elisabeth would give the OK to start sealing the demons ever since.

"Yes, he was possessed, and it's really fucking weird. Can we please purge him of that freaky ass demon now?" Charlie requested.

Elisabeth let out a chuckle. "Sure," she replied. Turning to Alfred, she said, "Please get demon number 50 here." Alfred bowed and left the yard.

"You're numbering them?" Raphael asked.

Elisabeth shrugged. "It's easier for me to keep track of everyone, OK?"

The two soon-to-be-demon-hunters stared blandly at her before muttering, "Yeah," and, "Makes sense."

* * *

10 minutes later, the possessed inspector arrived, looking thoroughly confused.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of being invited here, duchess?" He asked upon being greeted.

"That is awaiting you in the backyard," Elisabeth told him cryptically.

Vergier looked skeptical, but nonetheless followed the duchess and her bodyguard to the backyard.

There, he found two people standing there, clad in full body armor, their faces concealed by their helmets. The shorter of the two, in golden colored armor, had his/her arms crossed and seemed to be giving him their best death glare. The other, in red armor, seemed plenty more uncaring, though he/she still seemed somewhat bothered and as such appeared to be frowning.

"What's going on here?" Vergier demanded.

The two remained silent, and when the inspector turned to ask the duchess, he found that she and her guard had backed up considerably and were watching with stone-cold expressions.

Immediately on the defensive, Vergier reached for the guns hanging by his thighs. He didn't manage to remove them from their holsters, though, before the gold warrior formed a ball of light in their hand and launched it at him. He managed to get out of the way, but was met a moment later by the red warrior right in front of him holding a similar orb.

Red, as the inspector settled on naming him/her (and Gold for the other one), tried to shove the ball of light onto him, but he just barely dodged. Still holding the ball, Red tried another attack. Vergier managed to get out of the way again.

Gold joined in, and seemed to mock-attack at his side. There seemed to be no real intention of harm behind the assaults, though. It was clearly a distraction. And it worked.

Red finally got the ball of light to connect to the inspector's body. The force put behind the attack was enough to send Vergier flying a couple of feet. He landed with a grunt of pain, which soon evolved into shrieks of extreme suffering as the light from the ball, which had magically stuck to him like glue, spread throughout his body in an attempt to purge all evil.

* * *

Charlie grimaced. It wasn't fun watching her father writhe in agony, but she reminded herself that it was necessary.

Raphael took a deep breath. "That looks..." He paused in an attempt to describe it as they watched the inspector.

"Unfortunate? Painful? Not what you would commonly consider a good time?" Charlie offered up a multitude of various words was would fit.

"Yes," he said lamely. "All of the above."

The two watched as the darkness was extracted from the body it had inhabited. It flopped unceremoniously to the ground and morphed into its true form, a large purple humanoid with red glowing eyes. Its skin seemed to be akin to scales, like that of a dragon's.

It seemed to revel for a moment in being free of the stuffy body, but quickly focused its attention to the situation at hand. It seemed to sniff the air like a dog. It focused in on Charlie. With a voice that sounded as rough and cruel as its appearance suggested, it growled, "You."

It jumped forward with shocking speed, knocking Raphael all the way across the expansive backyard in one swift kick. It grabbed Charlie by the throat, though she was unharmed thanks to her armor.

"You," it repeated, its eyes seemingly narrowing. Its grip tightened, starting to bend the metal.

"What do you mean 'you'?" Charlie growled, struggling to get out of the creature's grasp as her airways were slowly cut off.

"I tried to fucking help you and this is how you repay me?!" It yelled.

"Why would you help me?"

"Because I felt pity for your dumbass father!"

Charlie paused, and her struggles ceased. "Why would you pity him?" She asked.

"Because he was pathetic."

"That's not too hard to figure out. Tell me something I don't know."

"Ok then... He realized I was there. He awakened. And he requested my help."

Charlie stared at him, trying to figure out if it was the truth.

"When he wakes, ask him."

"Maybe I will. But why would you help him? What would you have to gain?"

"I would be allowed to inhabit him, duh."

"What do you mean 'allowed?' You forced yourself in anyway."

"If the original soul of the body awakens or returns, it can easily force out the interloper, you know."

"No, I didn't know that. I only got this job a week ago, and it's not like I've been studying."

The creature seemed to frown, even though its expression remained the same. "You're hopeless."

Charlie laughed bitterly. "I guess it must run in the family. You know, I must ask, why did you bother to pity him? Besides getting to remain possessing him, of course."

The creature shrugged. "I had nothing better to do. To tell you the truth, I could very well be partaking in the contests that my brothers have set up to determine who gets to tear into that girl's soul. I'm more than strong enough. But she's not the one any of us wish to harm. Those souls could be halfway across the world, they could be currently reincarnating, or they could be two blocks down. No one knows; they just want something to direct their anger towards. Me? I'm just doing something a little more productive with my time."

Charlie stared at him, dumbfounded. "So you're just trying to waste time, effectively?"

"Yep."

"Now you're making me feel bad. I mean, yes, I figured not all of you demons were all that bad, most of you try to fit in with society since there aren't enough to fully possess the city. But it just feels weird to hear that you're just trying to do something productive with your unending life."

"How about we strike a deal?" The creature asked.

Charlie looked at it skeptically. "What?" She asked.

"I get to remain in your father's body and assist him in figuring out what the fuck he's doing. In return, you get my assistance in finding locating any of the demons that I don't like. Which is most of them. Being shoved in a tiny, old, smelly box isn't fun, I'll have you know, and those dumbasses only made it worse. It works out for us all."

Charlie glanced at Elisabeth, who was watching with interest. "What do you think?" She asked.

The duchess thought for a moment before sighing. "I don't see why not."

The creature smiled. "Good, good." He finally dropped Charlie, who had long since gone limp since she was being held up, and as such flopped on the ground rather pathetically.

Standing, and glancing at the fallen body of her father, Charlie asked, "Will he actually remember any of this?"

The demon shrugged. "Most likely not. He usually sleeps while I'm doing his work for him."

"Why would he be sleeping?"

"Not like he's got anything better to do. Can you think of any person who works for any reason besides the fact that they get currency?"

"I don't know anyone like that, but let's face it; at least one person in this world truly enjoys their work, and wouldn't give it up for anything."

"Fair enough."

"So," Raphael, who had at some point dragged himself back from the other side of the backyard, interjected, "do you have a name? I don't really want to just call you 'the demon' or anything. That just sounds weird."

"Yes, it does," the demon agreed. "I'll have to come up with a name that you humans can pronounce, then."

"What do the other demons call you?" Charlie asked.

The demon made a series of quick growls and grunts.

Raphael clicked his tongue. "Yep, can't pronounce that," he concluded.

"Exactly."

"So what would you like to be called? Besides… whatever that was?" Charlie asked.

"You're the ones that are going to be referring to me, why don't you pick it?"

"You're the one that has to respond to it, though," Raphael said. "What if we decide to call you 'Lord McFluffybuns'?"

"Then I will rip your face off," Lord McF… er, the demon snarled.

"Annnnd that name is off the table."

"Though, I do want to keep the 'Lord.'"

"We are not keeping the 'Lord,'" Charlie said immediately.

"Why not?" Raphael whined.

"Because he is not royalty, nor has he done anything to deserve such a title."

"Then what do you suggest we call him?"

"Anything without 'Lord' or 'McFluffybuns.'"

"Are you against 'McFluffybuns' too?"

"No, I just don't want my face ripped off."

The demon chuckled. "No, your face will remain where it should. Your father would be pissed otherwise. Only your partner will lack a face if you choose that name."

There was a pause. "I take it back; I want him to be known as 'Lord McFluffybuns.'"

"How rude," Raphael said, offended, but not really, having expecting such a reaction from her. "Why don't we go with Thanatos?"

"Thanatos?" Everyone present questioned at the same time.

"Yeah, we've recently gone through the Greeks in school. I like the name. Plus he's the bringer of Death. I feel it's appropriate."

"Are you sure you aren't just trying to get away from 'Lord McFluffybuns'?" Elisabeth asked.

"Well, partly. But in all seriousness, we need a better name than that."

"Agreed," Charlie said. "And Thanatos does seem to stick with him pretty well."

"Any other names you want to add to the mix?" Elisabeth asked.

After a moment of thought, the teens shook their heads.

"Then Thanatos it is."

The recently named Thanatos smiled. "I like it. It sounds tough. Now then, as much as I'd love to stay, I must be getting my host back to work. Best to not leave him lying there, you know?"

Thanatos changed form into a simple soul and dove back into Vergier. After a moment, he got up and said, "Have fun. Don't kill too many things until I can get a chance to watch! Oh yeah, and don't die."

"We'll try not to," Charlie assured him as he left.

"OK, shall we try this again?" Elisabeth asked.

"Yeah, let's," Raphael said. "I'm choosing this time!"

"And your choice is…?" Charlie asked.

"My neighbor, Paula. It's really weird not saying good morning to her anymore."

Elisabeth nodded. "Alfred, bring in demon 182."

"One… eighty two, did you say?" Raphael asked as Alfred left the scene, slightly frightened at the thought that they had actually found 182 demons in the city.

"Sorry, the numbering system got screwed up at one point or another. She's really around 65."

"If you say so. But aren't there nearly 200 demons running around? What's the real number 182 labeled as?"

A small smile appeared on the duchess' face. "The screwed up demon."

Charlie snorted. "Seriously? Was it that difficult to just fix the numbering?"

"Not at all. The person keeping track just thought it was funny and left it."

"How do you screw that up to begin with?"

"You know, I'm not sure. Talent?"

"That's a lot of talent…"

"There's a reason I hired her!"

"Because she screws up your number systems and then just leaves it when it has a humorous outcome?"

"No… Though that does keep things from getting dull."

Raphael laughed. "Dull? With me around, I'm surprised you even know the meaning of dull."

"Narcissist," Charlie muttered.

"Excuse me?!"

"I'm saying you're a narcissistic asshole!"

Elisabeth sighed as they began to argue.

* * *

Alfred popped his head through the door. He was about to say that 'demon 182 has arrived' when he saw his employer giving the two teens she was working with death glares. Said teens were in two separate corners, sulking and avoiding the duchess' gaze.

Confused, the butler asked, "Might I inquire as to what is going on?"

Elisabeth glanced at him with a briefly softened gaze before returning it to the children before her. "These two idiots couldn't stop their arguing. So I've put them in timeout."

"You aren't our mother!" Charlie shouted.

"Your mothers are gone, so I will take over that role!" Elisabeth screeched. "Now make nice and I'll cut your timeout short!"

The two scooted closer to each other.

"I'm sorry I called out a narcissistic asshole," Charlie apologized.

"And I'm sorry I beat you over the head with a stick," Raphael replied.

Elisabeth smiled and nodded, allowing them to finally get up.

Alfred stared at the three people in front of him. "Uh…" was all he could say for a moment before he snapped out of it. "Demon 182 is here…"

Elisabeth looked to him. "Thank you, Alfred. Bring her… them, it? Uh, bring 'them' in."

Alfred nodded and rushed away from the scene.

A moment later, he arrived with the possessed Paula in tow.

The teens donned their armor, prepared for a fight.

* * *

 **I found that ending fun to write. I realized I have a tendency to give Raphael a narcissist attitude at times. So I decided to poke some fun at.**

 **I kind of imagine Thanatos as a scaly version of that one robot the main character pilots in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Don't ask me why, though. I never even watch that anime, I just love the opening theme. Also, as soon as I thought up the name for him, it stuck like glue. So that's his name.**

 **I'm wondering, how long should I drag on this 'hunt down the people' portion before I move onto the next big event? I don't want to bore you guys to death.**


	4. Finally Getting Somewhere

**Well, this is probably the fastest you're ever going to see me update this. I don't know. I guess I was just inspired. Now then, reviews…**

 **Anonymous: Yes, there will be a support type. I had that in mind from the start. Take a wild guess at who it will be. And you may have missed it, but Fondue was frolicking in the duchess' backyard in the second chapter. I don't blame you for missing that, though. To make up for it, you get the short scene in the beginning, made just for you.**

 **And thank you, as well as averyshortreview for telling me that I could keep up the lesser demon fights. I don't know how many major events there will be, I don't have many in mind, but I could come up with some. Don't worry.**

* * *

Chapter 4

Another week had passed since our red haired protagonist that set this story into motion. Every day, they had freed two or three people, and slowly their world began to seem more normal. Of course, that was until you took their new jobs into account. Speaking of jobs…

"Are we ever going to get a reward or something for this?" Charlie asked on day 5.

Elisabeth smiled. "I was wondering when you were going to ask that. Alfred," she turned to the butler, who simply nodded and walked away. A moment later, he returned, holding two slips of paper. He handed one to each of them as Elisabeth told them, "For your help, you will get paid. You'll get a nice little bonus when we finally get Marie back. If you fail at that task, however, I'll bash you over the heads and revoke all your money."

Her two new employees simply stared at her for this, unsure of how to best respond.

* * *

Anyway, back to today's exposition, today Elisabeth deemed them good enough to go after a lesser demon of their choosing alone. If they didn't get their asses kicked, then they would be allowed to do it more often, therefore speeding up the purging process immensely.

The purging in of itself was not the top priority, though. In all reality, they were searching for any information the demons were willing to spill on where the major demons were fighting.

They had actually asked Thanatos for the information after realizing that he should know. His response was effectively, 'Go figure it out yourselves!'

Now, this response would normally warrant a good smack from the teens, but neither of them wanted to tussle with the demon that was twice Raphael's size in his normal form and had a gun while possessing the inspector. So they just left it and started seeking out the lesser demons.

So far, though, no luck, and all they managed to do was seal away 16 demons.

And so, now they were splitting up.

* * *

Fondue ran up to Raphael, whimpering.

Raphael looked at him, confused.

"What's up, boy?" He asked.

"I think he's getting lonely," Charlie suggested. "He's been here, simply watching, every day, for 2 weeks now."

"Is that it, boy?" Raphael asked, crouching and gently petting the dog's head.

Fondue whimpered again. In response to this, Raphael scooped up his dog and started to sing a lullaby. However, all this did was confuse the poor creature.

"You neglected the puppy!" Charlie scolded playfully. "How dare you, you cruel-hearted bastard."

Raphael stopped his singing and sent a weak glare in her direction. "Do you want to be beat over the head with a stick again?"

"No…"

"Then don't say anything mean about me."

"But that removes all the fun!"

"Enough bickering, you two!" Elizabeth called out, walking down the stairs.

"It's not bickering, it's playful banter!" Charlie told her.

"You called me a cold-hearted bastard," Raphael reminded her.

"So? I've also called you a narcissistic prick and a death-defying son of a bitch, what does it matter to you anymore?"

"You called me a what now?" Raphael asked, having never heard the latter insult.

"Enough!" Elisabeth shouted, hoping to regain some of the lost authority with the two. Luckily, they silenced quickly. "I don't care if it's bickering, playful banter, or if you're actively strangling each other!"

"Shouldn't you care about that last one…?" Charlie asked.

"I said I don't care, so I don't!" Elisabeth screeched while groaning on the inside, both because of the children's obnoxious behavior, and also because she feared she would have an incredibly sore throat later from all the shouting.

The teens took a step back from her. "Alright, geez," Charlie muttered while Raphael worked on calming down the frightened Fondue, who he still held in his arms. "You'd just better hope that we don't start to try to strangle each other, then."

"If you're done interrupting…" Putting on a more official persona, the duchess said, "Today is a great day. You two shall receive solo missions for the first time. Now, because you will be going and fighting outside of my backyard, I have some rules."

Charlie leaned over to Raphael, whispering, "Shouldn't she only be issuing rules if we're fighting _in_ her property?" To this, Raphael simply shrugged.

"You must take the person to a secure place where other demons are unlikely to come to and assist. Or watch and wait until you're done and then attack. Apparently they do that too. That is all." She walked forward and handed them both something. While the teens were looking them over, she explained, "These wireless communicators are for you to use during missions, and _only_ missions, since I know that you like to yammer on and on about how your day's going during the middle of a fight."

"Won't these get knocked off or destroyed during a fight?" Charlie asked.

"You'd better not break them, or I'll break you," Elisabeth threatened with a very serious expression before relaxing it. "Your armor should accommodate for them. Now go kill some people, er, seal some demons."

Raphael put Fondue back onto the ground. "Sorry, bud. But I can't have you getting hurt."

Fondue whimpered unhappily and scratched at the door when the two teens had left the room.

* * *

Raphael asked after they were 10 feet away from the building, "Hey, who are you going after?"

"Uh… I guess my football rival. He's annoying, but… I kinda miss his constant challenges. What about you?"

"I'm going for that faux Phantom. I'm starting to miss our dance offs."

Charlie snorted. "You had dance offs?"

"Why is that a shock?"

"It's not too much. But… you haven't danced in a while. It's strange to think now that you used to do it regularly."

"Are you kidding? I still do it regularly!"

"Really?"

"Yes, really! Watch!"

Raphael started to dance to a random, non-existent beat while his companion watched with a raised eyebrow. Eventually, she got bored and started to walk away.

"Hey!" Raphael yelled, stopping his dance to catch up to her. "You don't walk off during a person's performance! At least you should have left a tip."

"A tip?" Charlie asked. Raphael nodded. "I'm your partner and former enemy, and you want me to leave a tip?"

"Yes!"

"That dance wasn't even planned!"

"Yes it was!"

"How?"

"I made it up as I went along."

"That's not planned!"

"Yes it is! Did you see how intricate it was?"

"Doesn't matter! If you made it up, it's not planned!"

Charlie grumbled to herself as she tuned out the boy's response. No doubt it was something stupid in a vain attempt to prove he was correct.

"You know, we didn't listen to Elisabeth's 'solo speech' just for funzies. The whole point is to split up," she reminded him.

"Your point being…?" Raphael asked, probably just trying to spite her.

"GO AWAY!" She shouted.

"Alright, geez," Raphael said, turning to the left and walking down a random street.

Meanwhile, Charlie just groaned.

* * *

Five minutes later, the two children had identified their targets and led them away to the outskirts of the city with the promise of candy.

…No, seriously.

"You want some candy?" Raphael asked the fake phantom randomly.

"Yes!" The child squealed, immediately following.

…Seriously.

* * *

"Where's my damn candy?" The possessed Urbain asked.

"I told you five times already, I don't have it on me," Charlie growled through clenched teeth.

The boy yawned. "Then why drag me along? Couldn't you get it and then come back?"

"You followed me," Charlie reminded him.

"Oh. Right," Urbain laughed, seemingly amused.

'Maybe now he'll shut up,' Charlie thought hopefully, only for that hope to be instantly squashed like a bug under the foot of a cruel child.

"So, I haven't seen you in a while. Was it because you were gathering candy?"

Charlie's eye twitched. 'Excuse me?!' She shouted in her mind. "…Sure," she replied in as calm a voice as she could muster after taking a deep breath.

They turned a corner, down an alley, but the possessed child failed to notice as he continued. "You'd better have something good, then, since you were gone for two weeks."

"Oh, I have something amazing. I'm sure you'll enjoy it," Charlie replied with a rather evil smile that went unseen.

"Oh? And what is it?"

"Your _death!_ " Charlie yelled, spinning around and activating her armor, shooting the magical purging light at him. She was fully aware that she wouldn't be killing the demon, but she wanted to say something really dramatic, and just couldn't think of anything better than 'death.'

The demon was apparently stunned long enough that he was unable to move Urbain out of the line of fire, and, as a result, was struck.

The demon was expelled from the boy after a moment, and flopped to the ground with a small and pathetic 'Ow.'

Charlie smiled and turned on her communicator. "Yo, I've got 'em out. How's it going on your end?"

"Oh, just fucking dandy," was the reply.

* * *

(Over on Raphael's side-a little bit earlier)

"So, I was like, dude, you need a new sales idea. Like, no. It's not good with the whole Phantom R thing. Am I right?" Jerome asked Raphael, who simply groaned in response. For some reason, he just wouldn't shut up! And the demon wasn't even getting the kid's speech pattern right!

"So, eventually, I got him to drop it. But he still wants to keep doing it! I don't understand his obsession."

Raphael let out another groan. It had taken a good chunk of time to find that damn kid. He was surprisingly elusive. When he did, luring him with candy was easy, but now he apparently didn't know the meaning of silence!

Finally getting fed up, Raphael yelled, "AAA! SHUT UP ALREADY!"

Jerome frowned. "Now, that's not very nice."

"Nor is it nice to talk a person's ear off, but guess what you're doing?!"

Jerome was silent for a moment before asking, "There isn't any candy involved in this, is there?"

Raphael was momentarily confused by this somewhat random question. Finally, he answered, "Good job, tomorrow we teach you 'truck.'"

"I'll take that as a yes. What do you want, then?"

"To see you dead!" Raphael spat. "But sadly, that is not an option. So I have to settle with the next best thing. Beat you within an inch of your life, get the information I need, and then seal you away back in that smelly old box for the rest of eternity."

Jerome, or more accurately, the demon, cringed. "Not the box," he pleaded. "Anything but the box."

Raphael adopted a mocking thoughtful look on his face. "Maybe I'll reconsider… if you give me the information I so crave."

"Yes, anything, I'll answer as truthfully as possible!" Jerome yelled immediately.

Raphael smirked. "Good. Then tell me, where are the greater demons hanging out?"

Jerome was silent. Finally, he said, "I… I'm not sure. You think any of us underlings would know? We fled as far as physically possible from the tougher guys. They picked on us in box. You think you humans have bullying problems? Try spending eternity with those bastards."

Raphael frowned. "Dammit," he swore under his breath.

"I know I'm going to regret asking, but can I go now?" Jerome asked.

"No," Raphael growled.

"Why?" Jerome whined unhappily.

"I want you out of Jerome's body," Raphael demanded.

"And where do you want me to go? I can't live very well without a body to possess, and I'm not going with a dog."

"You could always go for a cat, they're aloof," Raphael jokingly suggested. He dropped the joking manner a second later. "I don't care where, I want you gone."

"In the end, you're going to seal me back in the box, aren't you?"

Raphael frowned. "Might. I haven't thought that far."

Jerome looked angry. " _I WILL NOT RETURN TO THE BOX!_ "

The boy lunged forward, intending to strike Raphael. The older boy easily flipped out of the way.

"Fine, you won't go peacefully? Then we'll fight." Raphael donned his armor and fired a light ball at Jerome, who sidestepped.

Raphael growled and was about to try again when he heard over his communicator, "Yo, I've got 'em out. How's it going on your end?"

"Oh, just fucking dandy," Raphael replied, sidestepping a rather pathetic punch before ramming the possessed child with a light ball.

* * *

Charlie nodded, satisfied, and returned her attention to her enemy.

"Maybe I'll let you off easy, if you're willing to tell me what I want to know," she shouted to the demon as it struggled to stand.

"Fuck off!" It screeched.

Charlie shrugged. "Suit yourself." She summoned the bases of her weapons and created the blades. The demon's eyes widened. "Want to reconsider?"

"A little," it admitted.

"Good. Now tell me… where are the greater demons duking it out for Marie's soul?"

The demon thought for a second. "Ah, the… ah… that one… underground place…"

"That tells me nothing."

"I wasn't exactly sticking around to watch."

"I can tell. Any more details?"

"Um…"

"Do you know how we can access it?"

"Yeah, that one place…"

"Be descriptive, dammit!"

The demon cringed. It adopted a thinking look and seemed to be attempting to recover a name. "Les…" After a couple more seconds, it snapped its fingers. "Les Invalides!"

"They're under there?" The demon nodded vigorously, so much in fact that it seemed to give itself a headache.

Charlie thought for a second and nodded. Before the demon could react, she sealed it within her jewel.

"Sorry, but I can't let you roam around free. You understand, right?" She was ultimately unsure if the demon could even hear her. Calling over her communicator, she said, "Hey, I got what we need. You will totally believe where they'd been hiding. And you will probably want to smack yourself upside the head for not thinking of it."

There was a surprised and happy gasp. "Really?" This was followed by a gasp of unhappiness. "Ah! Motherfucker!"

"Uh, you alright over there?" Charlie asked slowly.

"Yeah, just nearly got a leg lobbed off, you know."

Charlie hummed lightly in understanding. "Alright. See you at Elisabeth's then. Don't take too long."

* * *

Back at the duchess' manor, Charlie informed the older woman of the information she had gotten on the way to the sealing box, which had been conveniently relocated to the guest bedroom of all places.

"So, wait, you just left him there?"

Charlie shrugged. "I needed to get back. Besides, I freed him because he's my rival and I missed his challenges. Not because he's my friend. He'd probably think I'm going soft if he woke up to find me helping him in any way."

The duchess let out a low sigh.

"Anyway, onwards to more important things," Charlie said, trying to get Elisabeth's mind off the fact that there was some poor kid just lying in a random alleyway. "It said that she, and the greater demons, are at Les Invalides. When are we going?"

"As soon as physically possible."

"Uh… shouldn't we go tomorrow?"

"Why?"

"Though it wasn't much, we wasted some energy today. Shouldn't we do it tomorrow?"

"She could be dead tomorrow!"

"She could be dead today! What does it matter? The point is, we're going up against major demons. And if you want to put it into a video game sense, then these guys are the fucking bosses! Not to mention that we're probably going to be going up against 5 of them at the same time."

Elisabeth was silent for a moment. Then, "Not necessarily. I hope you have a high Sneak skill, 'cause you're about to go ninja on that place!"

Charlie stared at the duchess. "What?"

"She's saying that we're sneaking in, not running in guns ablaze," Raphael said, having at some point arrived and decided to pop into the conversation, but not before taking the time to lean against the doorframe and cross his arms in an attempt to make himself look like a badass. "Not that we have guns, mind you."

"I can't help but feel like this is going to get us killed."

"Nonsense!" Raphael laughed, patting Charlie on the head.

"Don't touch me," she growled, to which Raphael simply continued laughing and patting her. Eventually, she got annoyed and jerked back, biting his hand as it came down at the empty space she once occupied.

"Ow!"

"I told you 'don't touch me.' Did you listen? No, you did not. Therefore, you totally deserve that," Charlie told him rather smugly before frowning. "On the downside, you taste horrible."

Before Raphael could say anything back, Elisabeth interjected. "Are you going or not? Not that I'm giving you a choice, though."

"Fine," Raphael sighed, before turning and pointing toward the audience. "But that will come next chapter!"

Elisabeth looked confused.

Charlie, meanwhile, just looked bitter. She scoffed. "Yeah, right. Author dear is probably going to take all of forever to get that one made. Don't you remember how long it took to make Chapter 3?"

"Yeah, that was just a couple weeks ago. I have faith in her, though. More than you."

Charlie frowned in response. "I don't care who has more faith. So long as it doesn't take as long as it took to make #3."

* * *

 **Couldn't help but make a jab at my own update time.**

 **Next time! Shit hits the fan in every way but the literal kind. OK, maybe not** _ **every**_ **way, but close enough.**

 **Something semi-random, but how do you guys feel about pairings in this story? I don't care either way, but I'll write something in if you guys want to see something. Unless it's of the minor characters, which I won't be focusing on, so… Yeah.**


	5. Retrieving Marie

**I'm sorry, I've held this from you for long enough. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have any stupid second thoughts about where I'm going with this for the next couple chapters. I figured 'I'll write out the next chapter, and then I'll upload this one if I decide that the thing I'd been planning on is actually good.'**

 **Well, I got probably 7/8ths through #6, and then crashed terribly. So, I recently decided to take a deep breath and power through the rest of the chapter, even if it killed me and I had to leave in my will 'Will someone please be kind enough to upload Chapter 5 for me?'**

 **So, yeah. I made a jab at that. Again.**

 **Does anyone remember when I uploaded chapter 3? I can't seem to check, but I just remember that I made the first two with such ease, and I took forever for 3, but I can't remember how much of a gap it was. Odd. (Small edit here: I think it was in February. Chapter 2 was up on October of 2015, so it was pretty much a 5 month gap.)**

* * *

Chapter 5

Silently, Raphael and Charlie walked through an underground corridor.

Charlie grunted unhappy.

"Step on another rock?" Raphael asked playfully.

"Shut up," Charlie growled. "It's dark; do you expect me not to be stepping on rocks when you somehow convinced me to remove my shoes?"

I bet you all are wondering if you read that right. Yes, you did.

Raphael laughed. "I took off my shoes, too. You don't hear me complaining."

Want to know why?

"Yeah, because you're obsessed with stealth."

It's because Elisabeth showed concern over getting caught because the demons heard their shoes clicking on the rocks. Ridiculous, isn't it?

"If you aren't stealthy, we'll be caught, and then we'll be fighting our way out, possibly without retrieving Marie's soul."

Charlie let out another unhappy grunt.

"I'll take that as an 'I'll shut up now'."

Charlie did not respond.

"Man, you were right to not have any faith in our author," Raphael muttered in an attempt to fill the silence.

Charlie let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah. Did it take as long as it took for number 3, or did it take less? I don't remember anymore."

"I don't think anything's going to top Chapter 3."

"You mean that you hope," Charlie corrected.

"Yeah, that."

They saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and rushed towards it.

Peering into the new room with curiosity, they determined that they had reached the main catacombs. Luckily, there were no guards.

Cautiously, they walked through the room and gazed into the next room.

Both teens were surprised that they hadn't noticed it earlier. There was a battle royal going on that was causing mini-earthquakes, and there was a constant stream of cries of pain and victory. The room itself was in complete shambles, and the only thing that wasn't completely ruined was, rather surprisingly, the very center, where the throne was located.

Only five demons remained fighting by that point, the rest having been beaten and fled somewhere and though they were worn down, they obviously would still be able to beat the shit out of the punny humans that were currently about to steal from them.

"Whoa," Charlie muttered in shock, unable to come up with anything better to say.

"Yeah, that sums it up nicely," Raphael replied. Suddenly, he spotted something. He pointed. "Over there!"

Charlie glancing in the direction his finger was pointing in. "Marie!" She whispered.

Indeed, a small green soul was resting on the throne the fake Napoleon had once occupied. It just sort of sat there; seemingly unaware of the danger it was going to be in within… possibly only a couple of moments.

"We need to move, now!" Raphael hissed, darting forward, jumping behind a large chunk of rubble before he could be spotted.

"Oh boy, here we go…" Charlie muttered, taking off after him.

About halfway around the perimeter of the room, a demon, which resembled a wolf to some extent, and was about a wolf's size, was slammed into the wall above them. They froze, and slowly glanced up at the canine-demon. The creature didn't notice them and slowly peeled itself from the indentation in the wall that it created, darting back into the battle.

Charlie breathed out a small sigh of relief. "Oh, geez," she whispered. "I was afraid it'd see us."

"I was afraid it was going to get away from that wall just to fall on us," Raphael replied. "Not that it's big enough to cause any real damage." He looked around. "They haven't noticed us yet. I'm actually shocked. Best to keep moving."

They continued on, jumping between fallen boulders to avoid detection for as long as possible while still getting close to the center. Finally, they had somehow gotten close enough that they would only be out of their cover for no more than a couple seconds. They had hit a point where hiding behind the boulders was more risky than hiding in front of one, and thus had their backs pressed up against one.

"You want to grab her?" Raphael asked nervously.

"You're the thief!" Charlie hissed in reply. "Why can't you get her? Besides, you're her boyfriend."

Raphael turned a slight pink color in the face. "We are not in a relationship."

"Right…" Charlie replied with a roll of the eyes. She risked a glance back at the fighting demons. They weren't looking. "If you won't, I will."

After one last glance back, she darted forward, successfully snatching up the soul and ducking behind cover again without being seen.

She let out a sigh of relief. "Now we just need to get back and-"

There was a deep hiss. "Sssssshe'ssss gone!"

The teens went rigid, both thinking, 'Oh, you've got to be kidding me!' Immediately after thinking that, something else, more pressing, passed through their minds, and the sole thing that they were able to focus on was… 'SNAKE!' They figured it was a snake because A) there was actually a snake-like demon, which was only slightly smaller than a human, but was easily twice as long, B) because of the drawn out 'S's and C) because of the irritated little snake-like noises it was currently making.

Charlie glanced to Raphael. 'What do we do?' She mouthed.

'I don't know!' He mouthed back.

'You're kidding me, you're the thief here!' She replied, though most of it was lost because Raphael was a poor lip reader.

Raphael made an irritated little gesture with his hand and scooted to the edge of the boulder. He risked the slightest glance towards the demons. They were approaching, and quickly.

The experienced thief reached out and grabbed Charlie's free hand, and waited for the right moment. The second that the demons passed the boulder, and could no longer see the other side; he slipped over there, dragging his companion with him.

They looked about. No cover except what would require going directly in their line of sight.

Charlie looked to Raphael, who, to her surprise, simply shrugged, as though saying, 'Not much we can do.'

She looked back at the demons. They were staring at the throne as though they were crazy. "She couldn't have just walked off," the dog demon said. "She lacked legs."

"No shit," a demon that kind of resembled an ogre, and was about the size of the stereotypical one, replied. "Must have been those kids that lesser demon was shrieking about."

Charlie and Raphael looked to each other in confusion. Which one? They had sealed away any demons they met. Unless Thanatos was playing a cruel game, with them being the game pieces. But he wasn't a lesser demon, was he?

A flying bird demon, which was a little over half the average human's height, came to rest on the teen's cover. How it failed to notice the two while in the sky was beyond them. They held their breath as it spoke. "Then start searching," it demanded. "I want that soul."

"Hang on, you won't even get it! That soul's mine!" A frog demon, which was very much akin to the bird demon in height, yelled.

"It's mine!" The ogre demon yelled.

Promptly, the ogre and the frog got into an argument that threatened to break into another battle. Unfortunately, the bird and the snake managed to separate them.

"Find the ssssoul, and then we'll worry about who getsssss it," the snake hissed.

There was the sound of a dog sniffing. It moved closer to the boulder. Raphael frowned as he realized there was no way they would be getting out without being spotted. He was about to just grab Charlie and make a run for it, but then he heard the sickening sound of something sinking into flesh, and then a pained whimper, followed closely by a more dog-like whimper, alongside the noise of someone punching something. He broke away from his thoughts to see what happened.

The canine had popped out from the side of the boulder, and bit Charlie's leg. In retaliation, she had clocked it over the head with her fist.

"Well, this just got more complicated than it needed to be," Raphael said, jumping up out of cover to find all of the demons were already staring at him.

Charlie stood and limp-sprinted to his side. "We're dead, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," Raphael replied grimly.

"You're not going to give up, are you?"

"NOPE!" Raphael summoned his armor and weapon, a fierce glint in his eye that let all present know that playtime was over.

Charlie nodded, satisfied with that answer, and summoned her armor and right hand's weapon, holding Marie's soul with her left. As the canine's bite impeded her movement on the ground, she then flew into the air.

The bird demon smiled, amused. She was leaving her partner's side, so he would have to deal with four other powerful foes at once, and she held the girl's soul. The bird figured it would be an absolute cinch to just take the soul and devour it, and rip the child apart limb for limb, just to see the boy's reaction.

The frog demon reached the same conclusion the bird had come to. "Hey, hold up, that's not fair! You're the only one who gets a shot at the soul!"

All the other demons turned their attention to the bird and snarled. Charlie silently urged Raphael to attack while their backs were turned.

He did. He dashed at the giant ogre demon and struck, slashing it three times in the back before it could do anything. It roared in pain, and turned to club the boy with its fist, but he managed to get out of the way and continued to attack. The wolf growled and launched itself at him, barreling into him and pinning him to the floor. Even when they're demons, canines apparently remain a humanoid's best friend.

Charlie frowned and fired a single shot at the creature, knocking it off. Raphael jumped up just in time to avoid a kick from the ogre, holding up a thumb in appreciation. He dashed at the dog, which was still reeling from the unexpected attack. He hit it twice before sending it into a wall with a swift kick to the side. He left it there, as he didn't have the time to seal with the ogre about to ram him.

Wait, what?

The ogre smashed into him, sending him flying.

'This isn't going well," Charlie thought with a grimace as she saw this out of the corner of her eye as she tried to focus on keeping the bird from eating Marie. She saw an opportunity to attack, and prepared to do so. Something grabbed onto her leg, though, and knocked off her aim, sending the shot harmlessly past the creature.

Risking a glance downward to see what was on her, she found the frog demon had somehow launched itself up to her, and was now gazing hungrily at the soul she held.

"Back off, buddy," she snarled and swiped at him.

Surprisingly, the frog didn't think to move in time and was sent back to ground.

The snake looked at the frog when it smashed into the ground, creating a small crater, with disappointment, as though it expected far better.

"Like you could do better," the frog grunted from its position of having half its face through the floor, having somehow noticed the look.

"Oh, I can do ssssso much better than you," the snake promised, and then surprisingly managed to launch itself all the way up to Charlie, coiling around her torso, leaving only the hand that held Marie out, as well as her wings, so they wouldn't plummet. "Morning, darling," it greeted. "Ssssssorry, but I need that ssssssoul." It frowned at her struggling. Quick as a flash, it darted its head upward and bit down on her shoulder, easily breaking through her armor as though it wasn't even there.

"What the hell was that?" Charlie grunted.

"Oh, just a minor poison that should stop your resistance, if you survive long enough for it to take effect."

"Why do you have a real snake's attributes!?"

The snake decided to ignore that question entirely and turned its attention back to the soul. "Now then…"

"Oh, no you don't!" The bird yelled, racing forward, talons extended.

Charlie realized that the bird was going to start slashing at the snake. Her fingers curled around the soul she held protectively. One stray slice and Marie could be ripped in two. Did the bird not realize?

The bird started tearing into the snake, careful to not get close to the hand that held the soul. Maybe it wasn't stupid after all.

The snake hissed, in tears from the pain, and dropped off. It shot a glare at the bird before slithering away from the battle zone, unable to fight any longer. The frog, which had since pulled itself from the hole it had created in the ground upon landing, shot the snake an 'I told you so' sort of look and took off with it.

Charlie almost flew after them, not wanting to let any greater demons to get away. If they recovered their strength, they would have one hell of a time fighting them. They were currently only at probably at least half-strength, maybe even better and they were kicking the children's asses. She didn't get the opportunity, though, as the wolf demon somehow managed to get up to her level.

"How the hell?!" She yelled, enraged, when it latched onto her back. She struggled to get it off, but found that it had gotten a good hold on her. It was significantly heavier than either of the previous two, and she immediately found it difficult to keep in the air. Plus, and she hoped it was just her imagination, but it felt like the snake's poison was already starting to take effect. Later, she would wonder why she didn't just drop and use her unwanted passenger as a cushion when they hit the ground. It would have saved a lot of time and energy.

"Pretty, pretty," it commented.

"Wha-" Charlie tried to turn to see what it was looking at.

"Hey, she's mine!" The bird yelled. "Get off!"

"Can't I get a souvenir?" The dog pleaded.

The bird rolled its eyes. "Fine, but only if you'll leave after you get it."

"Fine by me!" The dog yelled happily.

Charlie thrashed about in an attempt to dislodge the dog, not liking what he meant by 'souvenir.'

"Stay still," the dog demanded. "You're going to ruin its prettiness."

"What the hell do you mean?" Charlie asked.

"What do you mean 'what do you mean?' I'm taking a memento."

"What the hell does that even fucking mean!?"

"It means… I'm taking this."

Charlie froze as she felt numerous little somethings, warm and sharp, digging into her left wing. Almost immediately, blood began to flow from the wounds. Why the hell would it even have blood if it was a magical appendage?

She let out a yelp and yelled, "H-hey, what the hell are you doing?"

The sharp objects removed themselves. "I told you, taking a memento," the dog told her.

'Not very bright, is it?' Charlie thought to herself. 'Maybe I can keep it occupied with a petty conversation until Raphael can finish his fight. Then again, I have to worry about that damn snake's toxin eventually.' She risked a glance over to her partner to find that he had gotten the upper hand, but not before getting smacked into a wall at least 5 times. The poor guy probably had a concussion by now.

Raphael looked up at her, and his eyes widened when he saw the situation she had gotten into. "Nice going," he murmured. He glanced back at the ogre just in time to get smacked again.

The bird made a strange clicking sound with its talons, reminiscent of snapping one's fingers. "Hey, dog breathe, hurry up, will ya?"

The dog nodded, and moved to bite down again.

"H-hey, why do you want a wing, anyway?" Charlie asked in vain attempt at distracting him.

"You're getting annoying, kid," the bird growled.

"Oh, and you would enjoy it if a dog was going to rip off your wing?"

"Of course not. Thing is, it's not me. Now stop struggling so the dog can get his souvenir and I can get the soul."

"The only issue with that plan is I won't let you have the soul, no matter what!"

"I doubt you'll be saying that when you're wriggling in pain. Dog breath, move it!"

"No, this is amusing," the canine said, watching the entertainment intently.

"I don't fucking care! Rip, tear, murder!"

"Do you want me to murder her?"

"Sure! Why the hell not? Just get your souvenir and leave!"

"Yay!" The dog shouted cheerfully, immediately trying to find a way to scratch out her throat.

It didn't manage to, though, as Charlie, on accident, really, managed to bob it on the nose, which somehow knocked it off.

"Of course it was that easy," she muttered to herself as she watched it fall to the ground, running away to a corner with its tail between its legs.

The time taken to deal with the wolf's (dog? …whatever) interference was a rather large amount when on an unseen timer. Though the creature was no longer resting on her back, she still left as though it were there. It hardly took a nanosecond to determine that the snake's poison was starting to take its toll.

"God motherfucking-" Charlie started to swear continually, and rather loudly, as she reengaged in battle with the bird. With the toxin slowing her, however, the only thing that she really accomplished was having over half her armor completely decimated, and very nearly losing a hand at least twice.

"Geez," Raphael sighed as he jumped away from the ogre's fist yet again. Raising his voice, he called out, "Need some help over there?"

Charlie paused in her swearing to yell, "That would be very fucking nice, yes!"

Raphael nodded and looked back at the ogre. "Sorry buddy, playtime's over. My partner needs me."

The ogre growled and swung again as Raphael launched himself into the air.

"Whoa, someone needs some anger management classes," he taunted as he flew away. "Hey, here's a thought…" He said to Charlie as he reached them, intercepting the bird's attack. "Why don't we run?"

"Don't you mean 'fly away'?" Charlie asked as she slipped away from the bird.

"Does it really matter?"

"No, it does not."

Raphael nodded happily. "Then leave. I'll hold them off for a couple moments."

"That's stupid on the most extreme level."

"Well, you seem a little sluggish at the moment, so I don't think we'll both get away otherwise. And you have Marie's soul."

"Quite frankly, I think I'll pass out before I get anywhere."

"That has yet to be seen."

Unfortunately for him, it was then that Charlie briefly lost consciousness and fell a couple feet before catching herself.

Raphael groaned. "Isn't this the point whereas we unlock a new power that can save our asses?"

"You're thinking of anime, not video games," Charlie grunted, trying to keep herself from passing out again. Sadly, this failed miserably and she dropped again.

The bird grinned, which looked all too creepy considering the fact that, last he checked, anyway, Raphael was sure birds could not grin. It darted forward and got behind her as she started to force herself awake again.

"Sorry, dear," it cooed evilly, "but there can only be one magical creature that can fly here."

"What about me?" Raphael asked, feeling very offended. While he was actually quite unhappy that the bird didn't even think about him, he was actually only talking to stall for time as he moved to slice the bird out of the air.

"…That are good at it, anyway," the bird replied with a small, taunting laugh, not pausing for a second as it reached forward with its talons and latched onto Charlie's already damaged wing.

There was a disturbing ripping sound as it pulled.

* * *

 **Yes, isn't that the perfect time to stop? Especially with my update time, you'll likely be waiting a month, hell, maybe two, until I finally remember to post the chapter... I've already written up. Tell you what, I'll try to give you it in... two weeks. Good? Unless, of course, that isn't enough time for anyone to realize this chapter is up.**

 **The fact that Marie's soul is green comes from a site saying that the color represents a harmonizer and healer. Take three guesses as to why, and the first two don't count.**


	6. How They Managed To Not Get Killed

**Wow, I got a review! *Squeal* I love the smaller sides of fanfiction, it always makes it more special whenever you manage to get someone to notice you. Unfortunately, it's also harder to get people to notice you. Ah, my lovely little dilemma.**

 **Anyway, 'Anon' (Get ready, this is long!):  
** **I'm glad you're liking it. I think fourth-wall breaking is basically becoming my 'thing' now.  
** **As for the whole 'wings having blood' thing, I'll try to address that in-universe at some point, because I know a lot of people neglect the Author Notes, or at least don't know what you said and don't want to take two seconds to figure it out and get the context, so... where was I going with that thought?  
** **Anyway, to answer that is a little more complicated in my mind than it should be. Charlie, as stated rather lazily in Chapter 2, is special as she prefers having them out, and so it'll likely be that hers are actually tangible, whereas Raphael's are not. She does not just 'stop using them and make them disappear,' rather having to force them back. Therefore, most of your question isn't 'valid,' but to give you some peace, if she did force her wing to go away to whence it came, the lose of blood would still affect her because she is bleeding her own blood, a hole was just ripped in her back after all.  
** **This chapter really fails to address that, to keep some sense of lightheartedness, even though around this time shit gets real for a couple chapters.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Raphael let out a small frightened gasp and broke away from his attempted assault, diving to save his partner, who simply fell, fully awake now, but too stunned and not exactly aerodynamically stable enough anymore to do anything about her current predicament.

He successfully caught her and landed on the ground. He glared up at the bird demon, and briefly glowered at the ogre, and most definitely growled at the cowering dog/wolf/whatever. They all seemed to be chuckling madly, though the canine was also partly whimpering. The bird tossed the severed wing to the cowering dog, which snatched it up and made a mad dash for the exit, disappearing from sight in a mere second.

Raphael gently shook Charlie. "Yo, come on, stay alive, ya hear me?"

"You sound like an idiot," she complained in response, with a neutral sounding voice, hanging limply in his arms.

Raphael chuckled sadly. "I'll sound like the stupidest creature on the planet if it keeps you alive."

"Whoever said I was going to die, ya idiot?"

"No one, but with that bland tone of voice, it kind of gives the impression that you've given up on life."

"Maybe I have."

"Ah, don't say that."

Raphael looked up at the demons again. Both of the remaining creatures were slowly advancing, looking at them hungrily. They seemed to either be allowing them a couple final moments, or were just being stupid and not rushing forward to devour them because they just weren't thinking. Maybe it was both.

"Alright, you still got Marie's soul?"

"Course, I'm not going to drop her after all the shit I've gone through to keep her safe." She weakly held up the hand grasping the soul to illustrate the point.

Raphael smiled. "Good, good. You up for some running?"

"My leg's been bitten, I'm missing a wing, which is causing my back to ache, I'm rather beat up in general, and simply breathing is starting to hurt," she informed him before sarcastically remarking, "Of course I am."

Raphael purposefully ignored the sarcasm and said, "Good… because I've got a new plan."

"Oh boy, this outta be good."

"Shut up."

"Fine, fine, what is it?"

"RUN AWAY!" Raphael yelled at the top of his lungs, jumping up, turning and fleeing towards the entrance. Despite the fact that he asked her if she was up for running, he actually didn't allow her feet to touch the ground, as he carried her in his arms.

"This is not going to work," Charlie commented pessimistically.

"Course it will!" Raphael shouted with as much optimism as he could put into his voice considering the situation. He swung around and fired two energy balls at their pursuing adversaries, which, rather surprisingly, hit both targets dead center, stunning them. This is surprising because he wasn't exactly good at aiming while swinging around and firing at moving targets 10-something meters away.

"I do not know how I did that!" Raphael confessed as he turned and continued moving.

It wasn't long before they heard the demons catching up with them. With a growl, Raphael swung around again and fired blindly into the darkness. Once again getting lucky, both shots managed to connect.

"How the hell are you doing that?" Charlie asked, rightfully bewildered.

Somehow, Raphael managed to shrug. "Like I said before, I have no clue! Maybe I just gained the superpower of being really fucking lucky."

"That is not a superpower!" Charlie complained, used to his antics and stupidity by this point, but exasperated by it all the same.

"It is now!"

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Thank you, I will."

It didn't take long for the demons to shake off the light that attempted to wound them, and soon, they were catching up again.

Raphael grunted. "I can't keep this up," he muttered, annoyed.

"I got an idea," Charlie said. "Stop."

"But if we do, they'll just catch up."

"One way or another, they will, so I want you to put me down!"

"Hell no, you'll get killed."

"Do it!"

"Fine!" Raphael skid to a halt and put Charlie down on her feet, looking at her worriedly as she struggled to remain upright. The demons, having not expected this and somehow missed the shouting contest, very nearly raced past them and didn't notice. They paused, interested. They knew they had their prey backed into a corner (metaphorically, of course, though they would have preferred literally).

Charlie turned and shoved Marie's soul into Raphael's hands. "Now run," she commanded.

Raphael got the implication easily. "Oh hell no, I am not going to leave you here!"

"Too bad!" She yelled in response, summoning her weapon again and firing a shot at his foot, causing him to jump away.

Raphael took a step forward, negating the backing away.

Charlie snarled and snot a line in front of his foot, as though to put up a marker of how far he can stand. To their surprise, this raised up a physical translucent yellow barrier, keeping Raphael from her.

"Oh, OK, this just turned into an anime," Charlie muttered, exasperated. Looking up to the ceiling, the closest she could get to the sky, she yelled, "Make up your mind, universe!"

Raphael smacked the barrier, and was annoyed to find that it was solid as a rock. He growled as the demons snarled angrily at having lost half their prey and approached the remaining child. Looking down at the soul, he muttered, "Dammit, Marie. Now look at what you've done." He himself was unsure if he wanted it to ever be seen as playful. At the moment, he was just pissed off. Looking back at Charlie, he was horrified to find that she had cast away her weapons, merely sitting on the ground and awaiting death. That, or she fainted. Either one was entirely possible. He was surprised she hadn't passed out much earlier. With a growl, he yelled, "Alright, universe, she got her power, now give me mine!"

To his surprise, this call was answered, and the soul clutched in his hand disappeared in a flash of red. Before he could even look down to try and figure out what just happened, suddenly the world flew past him in a blur, and when it stopped, he was on the other side of the barrier, feeling like he wanted to throw up. The two demons stared, unsure of what just happened, while Charlie jolted awake, having indeed fainted.

"What did you just do?" Charlie asked.

"I told the universe it owed me. I don't think it took that lightly," he informed her, trying to keep the nausea down.

"So the lesson you're just now learning here is to not tell the universe to give you something?"

"Sure, let's go with that."

Raphael nearly fell over, but managed to catch himself and merely fell to a knee. Charlie reached out and gently placed a hand on his back to try and comfort him.

Surprisingly, this had the side-effect of causing a similar teleportation as before, this time dragging Charlie along for the ride. After a moment, it ended and dropped them off on the other side of the barrier.

"Holy crap," Charlie gasped.

"That's one way to put it," Raphael replied, somehow not losing his lunch in the process.

The two demons, both of which had been staring in stunned silence before, let out vicious, angry roars.

"It appears we are dead," Raphael said casually as he watched the creatures smack the barrier, which quickly started to crack. He wanted to run so much, but he knew that wouldn't help. He was too disoriented from that teleporting stunt, and even if he was fine, he refused to leave his partner behind, which would slow him down. He leaned against the wall in the hopes that it would help settle his churning stomach before his untimely death.

Charlie followed his lead and sat down beside him. "I think I figured that out half an hour ago. You're a bit slow."

"I take offence to that. And we weren't even here half an hour ago."

"I know. Doesn't mean I didn't know we'd get killed."

"Why'd you agree, then?"

"Because Elisabeth wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, remember? Nor would you, I'm sure."

"You know me too well."

Charlie let out a bitter laugh. "Unfortunately," she said.

"Normally, I'd tell you to fuck off for that." He flinched when there was the sound of glass shattering as the barrier broke. "But it appears we've met our end, and I don't want those to be my last words."

"Then get out your last words now. I think they're done waiting."

Indeed, the two demons were glowering and panting angrily. Their main prey had escaped their grasps, and their toying with the teens had only lead to disaster for them. They had no intention of allowing the children to live any longer.

"Then let it be… 'Shnazlehocker'." (No, don't ask me where that came from. I don't know. Broken up like this 'Sh-naz-le-hock-er')

"E-Excuse me, what?"

"You heard me."

The downed warriors looked up at the creatures that would soon kill them.

Glaring, Raphael said in almost a defiant tone of voice, "Shnazlehocker."

* * *

(A couple minutes before that mess…)

Elisabeth waited for what seemed like forever for her two warriors to return. She had accompanied them to the entrance of the underground, and now was just sitting there, cradling the comatose body of her daughter. Yes, she brought Marie along. Why wouldn't she? The poor dear just looked so serene lying there, seemingly dead in the eyes of everyone but a small group of people. OK, maybe it was just the least bit really fucking creepy.

The point is, before we get too side-tracked, is that she had waited. And waited. And waited. And she was fed up with waiting. And waiting. And waiting. So, she was just about to get up and go give those two kids a piece of her mind, even if it ended up killing her because she would literally be walking into a den full of evil demons that would surely love to see her more dead and ripped apart than a half-eaten stuffed turkey on Thanksgiving evening.

She was just about to go do that, but Alfred stopped her.

"But why?" She complained, stomping her foot on the ground in a very unlady-like manner.

"Because you will get killed if you do."

"You don't even know what I'm planning on doing," the duchess muttered with a false pout.

"No, I do not claim to possess that knowledge, but I am aware that whatever it is, it's, for lack of a better term, utterly stupid."

With a small, child-like snicker, she said, "Wow, you're right."

"I believe you should distance yourselves from those two. They're rubbing off on you."

"No, only Raphael. Charlie's the somewhat sane one of the bunch."

Alfred looked down at the body his mistress clutched. "I already feel bad for poor Marie. She'll be so confused when she resumes spending time with them."

Elisabeth laughed. "Yes, I agree."

The duchess was just about to get up and head down the dark tunnel regardless of what her bodyguard seemed to want when something rather unexpected happened.

In a flash of red light, resting there by the stairs was a green soul. The two adults stared at it, wide-eyed, for several moments before Alfred worriedly approached it. He reached for it, and carefully grabbed it, surprised when it seemed to try and force its way towards Marie. Blinking in surprise, he looked to the duchess, who gestured for him to just let it go. He did, and the soul floated towards the lifeless body.

The soul entered the young woman's body, and suddenly she was living again. She took a deep breath, and Elisabeth let out a small, happy gasp, hugging the poor girl close.

After freeing herself from her mother's grasp, Marie stood and stretched, wincing when almost all of her stiff joints popped simultaneously. She looked around sleepily, blinking in surprise to find that she was in the middle of a deserted public area. "What the heck?" She muttered to herself.

Looking around some more, she noticed something important.

"Where's Raphael?"

Elisabeth cocked her head to the side, confused. That's what she's worried about? Wait, that's actually an important question!

Jumping up, the duchess admitted, "I have no idea."

Marie looked at her mother like she was crazy. "But he was fighting demons!"

"How do you know that?"

"It's weird; I can remember some of the things that happened when I was a soul." She shuddered before saying, "I nearly got eaten." She jolted as she remembered something important. "We need to help him!"

Without hesitating a second longer, the newly-revived girl launched herself down the stairs, with his mother and butler following closely behind.

"Why does she not remember Charlie's there too, if she knows that Raphael's in danger?" Alfred asked.

"Hopefully, it's not because she died," the duchess replied. Raising her voice, she called out to her daughter, "Wait, it's dangerous to go alone!" Marie slowed and looked back to her mother, who slowed as well, pulling an object from her pocket and holding it out to her. "Take this."

Marie was understandably surprised to find her mother referencing an old-school NES game.

* * *

(And now continuing the mess that our two 'heroes' got themselves into…)

"Shnazlehocker."

Oh, I'm sorry, did I say continuing? I meant, continuing after this random word of recap.

The demons seemed confused and also satisfied with this final word and lunged, intent on murdering the children dead.

They were stopped from this attempt as well, however. A white shot of pure energy rushed forward and stabbed into the bird's side, knocking it over into the ogre, which, despite being massive enough to normally not get pushed over by the smaller creature, was caught off guard, and as such fell over with little resistance. They both landed in a crumpled heap.

Raphael looked over in the direction the projectile came from. There stood a person, wearing shining white armor. His first thought about this was, 'Oh, that's going to stain so easily.' His second thought was, 'Wait, what, who's that!?' His third thought was, 'Dammit, now my final words mean nothing!' Finally, his fourth thought was, 'Salvation! Run away!'

Acting upon this final thought, he jumped up, forcing his still churning stomach to lie still for a couple seconds while he dragged Charlie to her feet, who grumbled in response, as though saying, 'The universe is just fucking with us at this point,' or possibly, 'Just let me die already!'

Picking his partner back up, Raphael broke into a run that was no faster than a mid-morning jog. Inwardly, he half-cursed and half-thanked the universe for the various luck-based events that had been happening.

He paused as he approached the white warrior. He found himself staring, mostly because the white color, accompanied by the wings, made them look like they were trying to imitate a biblical angel. Blue eyes stared back at him with kindness, before they darted back to demons, who managed to get out of their previous predicament and were beyond furious at this point.

"Run?" Raphael asked, his voice resembling a mouse's as he stared into the jaws of death once again.

"That would be smart," the new person said. Raphael noted that their voice sounded oddly-familiar, but he couldn't dwell on it. If he did, he'd surely be run through.

Breaking back into a jog-run, he risked a glance back to the warrior, seeing them shoot a couple arrows at the demons. They had anticipated the attacks, though, and dodged. The warrior jumped, seemingly skittish, and dashed away in fear. Raphael filed that away as well. There was just something about them…

Seeing that they were about to be caught, Raphael swung around and fired two balls of light at their foes. Having not expected that, they were both hit… again.

Charlie, who had been watching, half-conscious, over his shoulder, muttered, "You've got to be kidding me."

"What did I tell you, I have the superpower of being super fucking lucky!" Raphael bragged.

Charlie merely glared at him, no longer wanting to waste what little energy she had left on arguing with him.

A final couple seconds passed, and suddenly he was rushing past Elisabeth and Alfred. Stopping, Raphael looked back and yelled, "Better run away, those demons are really pissed off!"

The duchess didn't move, however.

The frightened white warrior came rushing in; hiding behind her like a child would with their parent.

It slowly occurred to Raphael who it was that saved them as the momentarily forgotten memories resurfaced and he recognized the voice and the eyes and the overall nature. He didn't say it out loud, because he'd probably be stared at as though it was the most obvious secret the world's ever seen. However, he did exclaim it in his mind. 'Marie?! But how? When did her soul return to her body?'

Elisabeth raised her hands, creating a barrier akin to the one Charlie summoned, which the demons ran head-first into. Smiling, she looked to Marie, who stared back for a second before snapping into action, nodding and taking aim. The demons roared angrily, and turned to flee.

Marie growled viciously at this behavior, an act that surprised Raphael, and fired shot after shot at them, which for some inexplicable reason, traveled right through the barrier as though it never existed. The ogre fell, an arrow straight through its knee.

Cringing for the poor (not really) creature, Raphael quoted, "'I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.'"

"That is so outdated already," Charlie pointed out with a tired groan.

"I know," Raphael shrugged. "But do remember that would actually cause some serious damage."

"Yes, I'm well aware of that. Still makes me want to cringe when you say it, though."

Raphael opened his mouth to repeat it, just to annoy her, but stopped when they heard the somewhat familiar sound of a demon being sealed in a pendant. Looking up, they were not surprised when that's exactly what they found.

Marie seemed to be looking at the jewel in her hand in shock. "Strangely, a demon I shot in the knee being sealed in a tiny jewel is not the weirdest part of my day so far…"

"Yeah, don't worry, it'll get weirder," Raphael promised. "Where'd the bird go?"

"It got away," Elisabeth said. "It really wasn't all that difficult to tell."

"Well, sorry for being distracted."

Scoffing, Charlie muttered, "Yeah, you were distracted because you were busy annoying me with bad Skyrim jokes."

"I think 'internet meme' is a better term."

"Don't care."

"Shouldn't you two be passed out by now?" Elisabeth asked.

"Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding us," Raphael said. The two then inexplicably passed out.

Marie stared, stunned. "Dare I ask what just happened?"

"Nah, best not to," her mother informed her. "You'll get used to it soon enough. I have. After all, I've had to deal with it for several weeks now and am basically immune to their shit by now."

"S-shit?" Marie asked, confused at her mother's word choice.

Elisabeth seemed surprised for just a moment at her daughter's lack of knowledge of her less professional side. Then she remembered her child had been absent for several weeks and had missed her decent into madness. OK, maybe it wasn't _that_ extreme, but close enough.

"Just how much have I missed?" She continued.

Elisabeth merely sighed. "Way too much."

* * *

 **I had such issues with Marie's armor! I really thought it should be a blue, but not the same tone as what appears on her outfit, more of a cobalt. But I just thought that didn't fit, and it didn't even cross my mind to use the lighter coloring from her dress-type-thingy. So I settled with white, my second choice. Maybe I should have used green for it to match her soul color... Great, now I'm questioning my choice!**

 **I originally had this chapter split in two (technically three) and later put them together so I would met my 3000 word quota, which is the norm for this series. It's blatantly obvious where things were stitched together.**

 **Two weeks exactly! Yes! Anyway, don't expect the next one for a while, I've already ran into a block four hundred and eighteen words in.**


	7. Aftermath

**Welp, it's been nearly two months. Sad thing is: I've had this made for a good long time again, and just wanted to keep going since it's only 2,543 words. Bah, I got to make more jabs at myself as a result. I'm sorry regardless.**

 **Enjoy! ...I hope I'm not forgetting any notes.**

* * *

Chapter 7

Charlie awoke to the sound of multiple squabbling voices. Or, at least, it sounded that way. It might just have been one person talking to themselves; she really couldn't tell the difference. Either way, the noise was annoying her, and while she was curious as to why someone was in her room at no doubt 5 in the goddamned morning, she was also tired.

 _Very_ tired, as a matter of fact. She felt like she'd be run over by a car, nay, a truck right before a plane crash-landed on her, and so all she wanted to do was return to sleep before her mind could register any of the pain that her body was inevitably in.

With a light, annoyed groan that surprisingly caused the noise to hush itself, she attempted to roll over into a comfortable position, only to be greeted with a biting pain in her leg and back for the attempt. Forcing back a small whimper that threatened to escape her, she ultimately decided to stay where she was. Unfortunately, the aforementioned areas were now starting to throb painfully.

After a couple moments of putting up with her aching body, she finally allowed a low whine to flow from her, letting the other people/person in the room become aware of her discomfort. She doubted they could do anything, but hoped that they could anyway, as she was unable.

There was a soft whispering, likely male, judging by the pitch, saying something for a moment, and then suddenly there was a presence at her side, resting a hand on one of hers. This really didn't help anything, so she wondered why he bothered, but she at least gave him points for effort. He muttered something that seemed to be directed to her, though she couldn't make out any words. It was likely that he was saying something that he hoped to be comforting, such as 'Everything will be okay, don't worry,' even though everything would not be okay, she was worried, and she just wished she could return to the realm of the unconscious to avoid the feeling that she got clobbered with a couple hundred bricks for several hours straight for just a little while longer.

Suddenly, without any warning, that she could hear anyway, the covers were thrown off her. With a yelp of shock, she tried to curl in on herself to retain some of the heat that tried to run away. Her mostly unresponsive body refused the action, though.

(Away from her PoV for a moment…)

Raphael looked to Marie. "Was it necessary for you to throw off her covers in such a dramatic fashion?"

"Yep!" Marie replied with no shame whatsoever.

"You are trying way too hard to fit in, you know that?"

Marie looked crushed at this. "No, I'm not!"

"Quiet down," Raphael warned. He looked to Charlie, who was squirming uncomfortably. "I'm sure she has enough of a headache as it is without you yelling in her ear."

"Oops, sorry," Marie apologized.

"I don't think she cares about your apology right now. What I think she cares about is the fact that you threw off her blankets and then just left her like that."

Marie's face was a physical representation of 'Crap, I messed up!' Hastily, she tightened her grip on the pendent she held in her hand, summoning her recently-learned powers. Holding out her free hand, she created a small healing aura and pressed it to the other girl's wounded leg.

The discomfort Charlie felt lessened visibly. Marie smiled happily as she pulled away and Raphael covered her back up.

The only male present in the room sighed. "This would be the perfect time for a time skip…"

"Another one?" Marie asked.

"Yes, another one." He clapped his hands. "Make it happen, author!"

Marie had a confused look on her face. "OK, seriously, who is 'author'?"

Raphael sighed. "This is going to take awhile… Time skip! Now!"

* * *

(Time skip at Raphael's request… AWAY!)

Charlie awoke with a small, unheard sigh. She had been lazing about for no doubt several days, if not weeks, (though she figured she would have starved in that time) and though she was still sore, she figured now was as good a time as any to finally open her eyes again and see the sun.

Slowly, she did so, and immediately snapped them shut again as she remembered that light was blinding when it got in your eyes. Turning her head to the side, and therefore out of the light, she tried again without the sun's interference this time.

There was no one present at the time, and it almost made her wish that she had waited for a more dramatic moment to finally get her lazy ass out of bed. Almost immediately after that thought crossed her mind, she actually physically slapped herself. "I must not turn into Raphael," she told herself.

She jolted as the doorknob rattled. The door swung open, quietly, but dramatically, in the typical 'Raphael' style that she had grown more or less accustomed to. She focused her attention there.

Unsurprisingly, it was indeed Raphael who strolled in. He seemingly wasn't focusing too much on anything, and as such got about halfway across the room before realizing that he was being stared at by the girl that had been unconscious for far too long in his mind, a small smile on her face. When he did realize this, he rushed forward.

"You're alive!" He yelled.

"Don't you mean 'awake'?" Charlie questioned, frowning at how broken her voice sounded, her throat in desperate need of water.

Raphael chuckled. "No, I really do mean 'alive.' I seriously thought you had died a small number of times while you were unconscious." He grabbed a water bottle that had been sitting on the random bedside table and handed it to her.

After sucking down a generous amount of liquid, Charlie responded, "Wow, you have no faith."

"Which is ironic, since you're usually the one with no faith. I guess someone had to take over the role."

"So Marie's now the hopelessly optimist and dramatic one?"

Raphael blinked. "How did you know she's even alive? Weren't you pretty much completely unconscious at that point?"

"She'd better fucking be! I did not nearly get killed just so she wouldn't be revived!"

Raphael nodded. "Fair enough. Anyway, you're alive!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the bed, spinning her around happily for a moment before getting bonked on the head in thanks. He smiled goofily as Charlie returned to the bed, grumbling.

"So, did I miss anything important?"

"Nah, Elisabeth halted all operations until you recovered. The most she did was get Marie up to speed."

"Oh, great. So, let me guess, it's been an absurd amount of time that's going to cost us dearly if we don't get started murdering things again?"

Raphael chuckled. "Nah, it's only been a couple days. Give me a moment; I'll go get Marie and her mother."

Raphael ran out of the room, shouting at the top of his lungs, his happiness leaking into his voice and causing it to rise in pitch so he kind of sounded like a fast talking squeaky mouse.

Several moments passed, and eventually Marie and the duchess entered the room, seemingly confused to begin with, probably as a result of having missed most of what spewed from Raphael's mouth. They brightened considerably when they discovered what awaited them.

"Mornin'!" Charlie greeted as Raphael took a seat on the edge of her bed. Without even sparing him a glance, she kicked him off, to which he pouted pathetically.

"Charlotte! You're finally up!" Marie said.

"Haven't I already told you to not call me that?"

"Nope," she replied without hesitation.

"OK then… Don't call me that!"

Marie laughed and told her, "You can't make me!"

Charlie growled. "You wanna bet?"

Marie's eyes widened in fear. "Haha… Ah, no, actually."

"Then don't call me that."

Elisabeth stepped forward. "Enough shenanigans!" She commanded, silencing the teenagers. She looked to Charlie with a saddened gaze. "Charlotte." Charlie growled threateningly, but the duchess did not correct herself. "I'm sorry to report that you are no longer capable of flight."

Charlie's expression changed instantly, from mildly annoyed to indicating that her world was just shattered. She hadn't remembered losing her wing during the mission, as it had happened only about halfway through the excitement.

Raphael stepped forward and took a seat on the edge of the bed once again, pulling her into a hug, to which she pushed him away quickly.

"According to Raphael, the dog demon has possession of it. I don't know if it's possible for you to retrieve it and utilize it again, but we will make it a priority to locate and take it down."

"Can't I just… make a new one? Aren't they made of energy?" Charlie asked.

Elisabeth shook her head. "I'm sorry, but that's not possible for you. Do you remember several weeks ago, in Chapter 2, when I mentioned your wings were different from Raphael's?"

"Is it possible for us to go one chapter without breaking the forth wall?"

"Not anymore. Answer the question."

"Vaguely," Charlie replied.

"Yeah, that's where that's coming into play. You see, Raphael could very well just generate new wings if he lost them, provided he could lose them to begin with. His are pure energy, so I'm not even sure if they could be gripped. Yours, on the other hand, very well could be. You've unconsciously willed them into physical being, and thus could be grabbed."

"Wait," Charlie interjected. "If they were physical, then why could they just phase through my shirt?"

"I assume that was also an unconscious reaction."

"But how?"

"I don't know! Don't question it, the author doesn't want to think too hard on the issue."

Charlie huffed. "Fine, whatever. What's next?"

"We wait."

"Why?"

"Because you still need to recover."

"I'm fine. I've been lazing about for several days and am bored as all hell."

Elisabeth shook her head. "Nope, you're not leaving this room."

"And you're going to stop me? How?"

"Like this."

The duchess snapped her fingers, and immediately all entries (that being the door and a couple windows) were barred by a magical barrier.

Charlie stared, slack-jawed. "Hang on, how long have you been able to do that?"

Elisabeth shrugged. "Forever."

"Wait, then why didn't you use it when the Napoleon imposter shot you?"

There was another shrug. "I had a mere two seconds to think."

"Fair enough, but there are plenty of times where that would have been amazingly useful!"

Raphael placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "That was the main game, dear. This is a fanfiction with a decent premise, not bad writing, and subpar execution."

Everyone paused as they swore they heard a far away, desperate voice yell, 'IT'S NOT THAT BAD!'

"Yes, it is," Charlie calmly informed the voice, acting as though it happened every day, even though on the inside she was slightly frightened by the fact that someone was clearly watching them.

The voice yelled back, 'TELL THAT TO THE REVIEWS!'

"Anyway…" Elisabeth said in an attempt to get them back on track and away from the utterly shattered fourth wall. "You will be confined here until we determine that you can go out with few difficulties."

"Wait, hang on, what about my father… er, Thanatos? Both of them?"

"What about them?"

"Won't they be wondering where I am?"

"No, I informed Thanatos about the situation, and he said that he would take care of your father."

"What excuse could possibly keep him from checking on me for several days?"

"I don't know; I left that to Thanatos."

"You mean the author was just too lazy to think up a proper excuse, but wanted to address the issue anyway," Charlie lazily corrected.

"Step away from the fourth wall!" Elisabeth shouted.

Marie, who had been silent this whole time, suddenly burst into giggles, drawing attention to her.

"What're you laughing at?" Charlie asked.

Marie managed to stifle her laughter long enough to say, "You guys seriously think we're in a poorly executed fanfiction?" There was another annoyed, distant shout. "…Uh, seriously, who is that?" Everyone merely shrugged, just as unsure. "But really, why do you guys believe that?"

"I thought you told her everything?" Raphael questioned.

"I did. I just thought that she already knew."

"Well, do keep in mind that she wasn't present for our decent into utter chaos. Before her soul was lost, this world looked almost normal."

"No, that's not possible, the author's too messed up for this world to ever look normal," Charlie said.

There was a distant whine of, 'Shut up! I'm not that bad!'

There was silence for a moment.

"I think it's time to rebuild the fourth wall," Raphael said, slightly worried.

"I'm afraid that may not be possible," Elisabeth said.

"But we need that wall!" Charlie yelled. "It keeps all the Sues out!"

"The whos?"

"The Sues."

"Oh no, I forgot about the Sues!" Raphael said, frightened, dramatically placing his hands on his cheeks.

"Relax, the author doesn't write Sues," Elisabeth told them. "Hell, she doesn't even write OCs."

"Doesn't mean one can't come to life!"

"What about Rie in that one story of hers?" Charlie asked with a frown.

"She gets less screen time… page time? Less page time than the teacher that dies midway through the story. Hell, she'll probably be taken out in the rewrite."

"We can only hope. But wait; what about Peter, Thomas, and John?"

"Who?"

"You know, those burly white dudes in the latest chapter of… you know what, fuck it. John hasn't even been named as of yet. Though it doesn't exactly matter, it's not significant and it's likely no one migrates anyway."

"Please tell me it's not too late to fix the wall," Raphael requested with a confused whimper. He hadn't been paying attention to the author's movements either, so he was just as lost as Elisabeth to who those three were.

"Yes, I think it's still possible, though we'll do it though a time-skip because the author doesn't understand how that would work."

"Fine by me," Charlie said instantly.

(Epic fixing of the fourth wall… AWAY!)

"So, anyway, where were we?" Elisabeth asked.

Charlie opened her mouth to answer before pausing. "I have no clue."

"Good enough then. Let's go."

The duchess swiftly turned around and walked through the barrier she placed at the wall, with Marie following closely behind.

Raphael turned to Charlie. "Does she have the authority to lock you in your room?"

Charlie snorted in response. "Doubtful, but she's the duchess; no one really cares if she locks up a child so long as she doesn't intend to torture them and then eat the flesh off their bones."

Raphael shrugged. "Fair enough. You want me to get you something to do?"

"Yes."

"Can I get a 'please'?" Raphael requested.

"Please?" Charlie muttered with a low, annoyed voice.

"There you go," Raphael said, patting her on the head, and almost getting bitten again for the action.

"What are you going to bring me?"

"That's a surprise that you'll have to wait for."

Charlie frowned. "Ugh, fine. Be quick, though."

* * *

 **Yay!**

 **I debated on making yet another joke about Chapter Three's wait time, since my motivator for finishing the chapter was so nothing could break that record, but I'm sure you're quite sick of it by now.**

 **Next time, I'm skipping to the point whereas Charlie is finally released from her room... I think.**


	8. And Now You Are Able To Fight Again

**Hey there! This took long enough, huh? I refrained from cracking another joke at #3 before I'm sure you all are bored of that by now.**

 **I got this to about 3000 words, and decided to cut it off there just for... suspense. Yeah, that's why. Not because I wasn't sure how long the ensuing fight and aftermath would last. Totally. Anyway, about a week is skipped since last chapter because that would just be incredibly boring. You can thank me later, I guess.**

* * *

Chapter 8

"Fucking finally!" Charlie yelled as she burst out of the room. "I thought I was going to go crazy! Too bad the weather outside is so gloomy. I would have loved to go out."

"Come on, I brought you some Persona Q to play. It couldn't have been that bad," Raphael told her with a frown.

"I was in there for a week. That gets real tedious after a while. And I don't know anything about those characters!"

"It's not that difficult to figure out."

"Says the person who played the main games!"

"I have not. I don't own a PlayStation 2!"

"So? It's called an emulator!"

"My laptop would probably literally burst into flames if it attempted to run that! It's old and cheap. I don't have a lot of money, I'll have you know."

"Both of you! Zip it!" Elisabeth yelled, shoving her way into the conversation.

Charlie grumbled, though secretly she was a bit grateful for the interruption, as she was not in the mood to argue or even speak with the one that'd been acting as basically her only company for the past week. Marie had appeared on the odd occasion, but the two were not exactly very familiar with each other, and thus she only felt it appropriate to sometimes act as a nurse, which was very weird considering they were nearly the same age.

"Please tell me I can go murder something now," Charlie requested.

"You won't be murdering anything," Elisabeth sighed, to which the teen growled unhappily. "You will, however, be beating up evil demon creatures."

Upon hearing this, Charlie perked up and an evil grin spread across her face.

Elisabeth rolled her eyes as though expecting such a response. "This will merely be a test, to ensure that you have enough strength to not warrant being locked up again. Got it? Don't push yourself."

"Yeah, yeah. Where is it?"

"I thought you didn't want to go out since it's so gloomy," Raphael muttered.

"That was before I found out I can now go beat up a demon!" Charlie yelled happily, an almost deranged smirk on her face.

Raphael leaned over to the duchess, whispering, "I think you broke her…"

"Oh, so you're going to pin the blame on me now?"

"Hell yeah I am. I mean, look at that smile."

The duchess frowned and conceded, "Okay, I suppose you aren't wrong."

Raphael looked at the woman as though she had been replaced with a horrible alien recreation. "You seriously just agreed…? You know what? One deranged lunatic at a time. I'll deal with you later."

"Thanks for the compliment," Elisabeth muttered sarcastically.

Raphael absentmindedly patted her on the back. "Anytime."

Elisabeth let out a low sigh. "Everyone, focus for just thirty seconds. I beg of you."

"Your thirty seconds start now," Raphael informed her, glancing first at a clock and then to Charlie to ensure that she was paying attention.

"Oh boy," the duchess groaned. Her next debriefing speech came out in a flurry of words that was difficult to understand. But, because I'm nice, I'm not going to shove it into one big word in order to indicate that. "Your target today is a water demon. Remember I mentioned those once? Yeah, they're back. I have little information on them, but you should be able to find them, no problem. Fighting, who knows? I have no clue how to combat such a thing. Wait for it to start raining, and then go and find some poor sickly guy running around in the rain."

The duchess sucked in a large breath while Marie gently placed a hand on her shoulder, smiling in a silent 'Well done.'

Raphael looked pleasantly surprised. "I had no idea you were such a fast talker. Too bad I missed half of that. You still got twelve seconds, too."

"I got it," Charlie commented.

Raphael nodded. "Yeah, I kinda figured you would."

"Why's that?"

"With that smirk on your face? I bet you wouldn't miss a clue pertaining to your target's location even if it meant diving into a volcano."

"I would not go that far, and you know it."

"That deranged look on your face says otherwise."

"A volcano would kill me."

"So you'd be perfectly willing to rob some innocent guy?"

Charlie shrugged. "Maybe. Depends on who's the idiot."

"You'd get caught."

"People are idiots. It wouldn't be _that_ difficult."

"Tell that to all the people who're in jail because they fucked up a heist."

"And this coming from a teenage who's robbed the Louvre numerous times and has outsmarted many, many adults who are considered the country's finest investigators."

Raphael smirked. "But of course, I had a thieving father and a rhythmic mother who unintentionally taught me everything I needed to know. And I have a dog."

"Yes, because a _dog_ will make all the difference."

"Hey, Fondue is the only reason I am standing here today."

"For some reason, I highly doubt that."

"Okay, I know I'm amazing," Raphael once again flipped his hair in that 'I'm perfect' way, "but I'm not that amazing."

"And you say that as you once again make a gesture that usually only occurs in overly confident females with long hair."

"Are you insulting me?"

"Of course I am! That is not a normal thing for a boy of any age to do!"

In the background of all this squabbling, Marie and her mother watched silently. Marie was still somewhat unused to the bickering that was the common interaction of Raphael and Charlie, and as such had a concerned look on her face. Elisabeth, on the other hand, had been anticipating such a mess, and so had an exasperated expression that indicated that she had hoped to shove them out the door before such a thing could occur in her presence.

"Alfred," the duchess called out softly.

The aforementioned butler was by her side immediately. "I assume you want them out of here?"

"Very much so. Thank you."

Alfred approached the two bickering teenagers. He loomed over them briefly, making them stop fighting in favor of looking at him, glancing back to other adolescent, and then back to Alfred as they tried to discern what he was about to do. Seemingly satisfied by their level of confusion, he grabbed them by the collars of their shirts and dragged them to the entrance, tossing them into the dirt without a shred of remorse.

"Ow!" Charlie complained. "Hey, if you wanted us to leave, then you should've said so!"

"Maybe, but I know you by now. You would just end up finding a way to fight over that, too."

Raphael grinned with a small, out of place giggle. "So you noticed."

A drop of water fell onto Charlie's nose, causing her to look up. "It's raining," she commented.

"Yeah, really couldn't have solved that fucking Rubix Cube out on my own," Raphael said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh, fuck off," Charlie growled while crossing her arms. She looked to Marie, who was still by her mother's side. "Yo, Marie! You coming, or are you even more of a wimp than our dear redhead?"

"Whoa, what gave you the impression I was a wimp?" Raphael shouted, cutting Marie off before she had a chance to yell anything back.

"Everything. I mean, you're as thin as a toothpick. How you haven't snapped in half yet is beyond me."

"What a nice friend…"

"Whatever gave you the impression you were my friend? You forced me into this. It's your fault I'm losing my mind."

"You're not losing your mind; you're just bored."

"I've been locked up for the past week! I just want to go home and play Shadow of the Colossus or something! Anything but more Persona Q."

"Okay, that contradicts what you said earlier, but more importantly, you have a PS2?" Raphael asked almost before she managed to finish the sentence.

"It's a PS3, actually," Charlie corrected.

Raphael proceeded to stare at her like she was God himself. "You have to let me play it!"

"No, fuck off!"

"Both of you! Either go kill the demon, or just simply get the fuck off my property! I do not care which option you choose anymore, just do it!" Elisabeth stared at them with a look in her eyes that indicated that she would personally snapped both of their necks if they dared to say one more syllable.

"We won't be killing it, though," Charlie pointed out.

Elisabeth twitched angrily.

"Uh, something tells me we should go," Raphael said, grabbing Charlie by the shoulders and pushing her along at a quick pace, "and that we should do so with all due haste."

"I will rip off your heads and feed it to the ducks if you dare return!" The angry duchess shouted.

"Feed our heads to the ducks?" Charlie asked. "Is she aware that ducks are not carnivorous?"

"I'm sure that she would be perfectly willing to spend several years of her life genetically modifying a duck for the sole purpose of feeding us to it," Raphael commented. "Therefore, I advise you _shut the hell up right now._ " He sighed. "So, how are we going to find this idiot?"

"Elisabeth said that we need to go out when it's raining and look for some poor sickly guy."

"Oh, is that what she said? I thought she said something about a 'core dickly kye.' Obviously that's not right."

"I'm not sure how you managed to mishear that so poorly."

"Hey, she was talking really fast, alright?"

"Yeah, I remember. But I heard perfectly, so I don't understand what your issue was."

"…I hate you."

"Hey, that was unprovoked!"

"Guys, please stop bickering," Marie requested.

"Marie!" Raphael yelled, nearly jumping five feet in the air. "Why are you here?"

"I'm one of the warriors too," she responded, holding up the pendent that marked her as such.

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about that." He chuckled sheepishly.

"So, apparently I'm going to have to keep you two on track, is that right?"

The two shrugged.

"Great… We have a lot of ground to cover, and I'm not sure how long the rain'll last, so-"

"Two hours," Charlie commented in an offhand tone, cutting Marie off.

"How do you know?" Marie asked.

"The wind's strong today, and I can see some of the sky in the distance," she replied, lazily pointing in the direction she was facing, of which did show a little sky.

"Okay, then. Fair enough," Raphael commented. He turned to Marie. "I assume you're going to be our strategy planner, and even if you don't want to be, I'm giving you the role regardless. What do you say we do, O Wise One?"

"I am not a 'Wise One,' but sure, whatever. I say we split up and looked for idiot lunatics dancing in the rain."

"What if it happens that he's just some idiot?"

"Then if he sees any of our shenanigans, we knock him out and hope and pray that he doesn't remember our faces later," Charlie answered for Marie, who nodded in agreement.

Marie cleared her throat dramatically, changing into a purely business mindset. "Charlie, go north. Raphael, take the south."

Charlie crossed her arms. "And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going east."

"That leaves the west unsearched," Raphael pointed out.

"Then you'd better start running so you can finish your section faster and do that," Charlie told him.

Marie clapped her hands together to get her partners' attention. "Alright, guys. Let's go! We only have 119 minutes left!"

"You do realize two hours was only a rough estimate, right?"

* * *

Charlie stared at the guy who was seemingly attempting to eat the rain, an overjoyed look on his face, with a dumbfounded expression.

She grabbed her phone and called Raphael. "Yo, I think I found our guy," she told him when he answered, not even bothering with a simple 'hello.'

"And why do you say that?" Raphael questioned.

"Uh…" Charlie tried and failed to find a good way to describe what she was seeing. "You really need to see this for yourself. Even if it isn't our guy, it's funny as fuck."

"Fine, fine. Where are you?"

Charlie gave him her location and hung up, watching the scene in front of her with an amused, albeit slightly disturbed, smile.

Raphael eventually arrived and looked around. "Where's Marie?"

"I don't have her number," Charlie explained.

"Then why didn't you tell me? I would have gotten her."

Charlie shrugged. "It slipped my mind. She's far too new to be of any importance to me."

"What a nice guy you are," Raphael commented sarcastically.

"I'm not a guy. I'm female," Charlie reminded him.

Raphael distractedly pat her on the head. "Good for you," he muttered as he looked through his phone in search of Marie's number. After successfully locating the desired contact, he texted Marie and put away his phone, looking up. "So, where's the weirdo?"

Charlie glanced back in the direction she had been previously watching. "He's right in front of you, idiot."

"I can see that now. I just figured he'd be on the roof or something."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I just figured that he would figure he'd get better rain or something."

"It's water falling from the sky, something tells me it can't be better or worse."

"Well, no. But some people have weird thought processes."

"Yeah, yourself included."

"Hey!"

"You two!" Yelled a voice. The bickering teens paused and looked to the source. It was the man who they believed was either possessed or a lunatic.

"What do you want?" Charlie lazily called back.

"What're you doing, standing around here? You'll catch a cold with this weather!"

"Same to you, buddy! We should be asking you the same question!"

"I'll have you know I just like dancing in the rain."

"You say that, and yet I haven't seen you dancing for one second of the whole three minutes I've been standing here!"

"Yeah, because I get self-conscious!"

"…You're telling us to go away, aren't you?"

"Yes!"

Charlie huffed. "Fine." She turned on her heel and started walking away, beckoning Raphael to follow. They turned down an alleyway and waited for a moment before peeking over the corner.

The man looked this way and that before simply dropping to ground, a demon rising from him. It grinned and happily absorbed the rain.

"So I wasn't crazy. Good to know," Charlie commented. "Should we wait, or rush in an attack while we're sure we have the element of surprise?"

"We outta wait for Marie," Raphael said.

"Why? Don't trust your superpower of being 'super fucking lucky'?"

"Not at all."

"Come on, we survived against a superpowered snake, frog, bird, ogre, and wolf, with the worse injury being a severed wing, of which I can live without even though I'm somewhat unhappy about it. We can take down a…" Charlie looked past the corner again and then said, "a demon made almost entirely out of water, the only real vunerable part being the head that I can't reach… Maybe we should wait."

"Yeah, just a little," Raphael chuckled.

Eventually, Marie arrived, and the water demon immediately jumped back into its host's body. She looked around in confusion, and pulled out her phone, looking at it to ensure that she was in the correct place.

Raphael thought fast and texted her to duck into the alley, hopefully without being noticed.

"I'm really starting to hate the rain," Marie complained when she spotted them.

Smiling, Charlie kicked at a puddle, spraying water in the other girl's direction. Marie shrieked and jumped back. She grumbled unhappily while Charlie smirked gleefully.

"I hate you people," the duchess' daughter muttered.

"So does your mother," Raphael said.

"And honestly, I don't blame in the slightest. Whatever, just… are we doing this, or what?"

The two more experienced teens nodded and donned their armor.

"Ah, man. I'm wet under my suit!" Raphael grumbled.

"Uh, it's a not a suit, it is called armor," Charlie corrected.

"Shut up."

"Guys, focus," Marie said, clapping her hands together to get them to do just that. "Either of you know of a good plan of action?"

"Why are you asking us?" Charlie questioned.

"You're the ones who actually have experience in this stuff."

"True that. Our strategies usually involve brute-forcing it, though, so…"

Marie groaned. "I suppose I can't say I'm shocked."

"You really shouldn't be."

"Okay… got any suggestions? Besides brute force, that is?"

"The vulnerable part seems to be the head," Raphael said. "Charlie can't reach up there with the same ease as us when we're flying."

"So you want me to run distractions?" She realized.

"Got that right. Its feet appear to be made not of water like most of its body, so you should be able to hit that and topple it."

"I don't think toppling it would be good. It'd probably end up landing on me."

"You're the fastest runner among us. You should be able to get out of there in time."

Charlie looked over the corner. "I don't know. It's about as big as those people that you hear about on the internet that shop at American Wal-marts. Only scaled up to extreme proportions."

Marie took a glance at the demon as well. "Uh, I think I agree with Charlie, Raphael. That sounds like it would only end in disaster."

Raphael confidently clapped Charlie on the shoulder. "Don't worry! Everything will be fine! I'll see to it that if you get trapped, we pull you out before you can say 'Shnazlehocker'."

"Oh great, is that going to become your catchphrase or something?" Charlie groaned.

"Yep!"

"You do realize that the demon is made up of water, of which is completely coating me. If it lands on top of me, even if it has the viscosity of syrup, it will immediately engulf me because water molecules are attracted to each other. I won't have time to yell 'Shnazlehocker'."

Raphael frowned as he thought. "As long as you can hold your breath for 20 or so seconds, you'll be fine."

"It will probably be hitting me with the force of a truck, though. All air will likely be driven from my lungs. Also, and I hate to admit this, but I never had the motivation to learn how to swim. Therefore, I do not know how you're supposed to hold your breath underwater for more than 2 seconds."

"You never learned to swim?"

"No! S-shut up!" Charlie turned her head away from the two teens in front of her as she felt her face turn a bright red.

"Aw, don't worry," Marie said, trying to act encouraging. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm a terrible swimmer. I don't have any sense of coordination when I'm in water, and I was raised in an orphanage, so they didn't have the money for someone to teach me."

Charlie glanced at Marie and smiled a little. "Yeah, that makes me feel slightest less stupid. Alright, back on track, I'll act as a distraction. You guys fly up and attack the head."

Raphael nodded and looked to Marie. "Marie, I want you to stay a good distance away and keep a close eye on Charlie. If anything happens to her, give me a shout and I'll help out."

"All right, let's kill some demons!" Charlie said gleefully.

"We're capturing them, not killing them," Raphael corrected.

"Don't care," Charlie informed him with a flat tone of voice before rushing out into the street.

* * *

 **Next time! Hopefully anyway...**

 **We see the fight. Yep. That's it. Really. Don't worry, it should be interesting enough. I hope**


End file.
